Harry Potter and the Founders Objects
by Lady Halaia
Summary: AU After a bad summer at the Dursley's, Harry needs time to recover. Will time spent in the year 1977 give this to him? Time Travel, HPGW, JPLE, RWHG Contains abuse. Ignore ending of GoF, all of OotP and HBP. NOW ADOPTED BY REDHEADDELINQUENT!
1. Chapter 1

**_Disclaimer:_** This was given to me by Chauntahl, it is a joint story. So none of the plot, characters or world is mine. Plot is Chauntahl's; the rest is JK Rowling's.

**_Chapter One The Change_**

Harry Potter was concentrating on his homework. Unlike most seventeen year olds, he actually wanted to do his homework. And unlike other seventeen year olds, his homework was on the theory behind turning into an animal and how to brew a deadly potion using wolfsbane and belladonna. Harry Potter was a wizard, famous among his own, hated by his family.

Vernon, Petunia and Dudley Dursley were his only remaining relatives left, after the dark wizard Lord Voldemort had murdered his parents. Petunia was his mother's sister. Despite this, and because of his 'freakishness', his magic, he was loathed and unwelcome on number 4 Privet Drive. His Uncle Vernon believed it could be beaten out of him. This summer, during the six weeks he was home from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Vernon had taken this to a whole new level… With one night left to go till he went to the Weasley's, to stay with his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry was starting to fear for his life. Over the course of these holidays, Vernon Dursley had the aim of turning Harry into a muggle, using as much violence as he thought necessary. Because of this, Harry had been beaten, raped and emotionally abused.

Harry sat thinking about how he was going to hide his bruises, cuts and scrapes from his unofficial family, realising he wouldn't be able to wear anything short in front of them. Also, he had to work on not flinching every time someone so much as looked the wrong way at him, or they would be suspicious. As Harry sat thinking about his homework (Magical Majorities for his Charms class, Magical Beings for Defence Against the Dark Arts, summaries of the last years work for Herbology) someone came stomping up the stairs. Harry's heart sank as he realised who it was. His uncle.

"Boy, open this door this second," Vernon growled as Harry shoved his quill, parchment and textbooks underneath the loose floorboards. Anything magical hanging around would only make this session worse.

"Yes sir," Harry muttered as he opened the door. Vernon grinned at him and lifted the leather belt he had in his hand. Harry bowed his head in knowledge of what was about to happen, and distanced himself from the scene, letting a strange numbness sweep over him.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

The next few days went along much the same lines as the rest of the holidays had gone, making Harry intensely glad that tomorrow he would be leaving. If he didn't, he truly feared he would not be able to leave. Alive, that is.

"Boy!" A roar came up the stairs and Harry hurried to obey, ignoring the pain shooting up his back. If he didn't, it would only get worse, he knew this from experience. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, Vernon was waiting with his trunk. Harry, of course (being extremely paranoid, a second year of Moody does that to a guy) had put away everything underneath the loose floorboards, and replaced them with fakes. And now, he was strangely glad. He thought he knew what was going to happen now.

"You called, sir?" Harry asked, keeping his head down and his voice soft. He did not want to make this any worse than it was going to be, even if his trunk was only filled with fakes. Vernon grinned savagely.

"I want you to take this out into the yard and burn it. And then I want you back in your room. If you thought you would be leaving here, you are mistaken, you little freak," Vernon hissed. Harry inwardly rejoiced at his practice as showing feelings he did not feel as he forced tears into his eyes and looked pleadingly at his uncle. He was glad now, definitely.

"Please, sir. I'll do anything, just please don't make me burn my things, please," Harry begged for good measure. He had judged his uncle well, the foul mans smile grew, and he gripped Harry behind the neck and forced him outside, Harry fighting to keep consciousness.

"Here boy," Vernon said, dropping the trunk on a patch of cleared ground. "Burn it, boy. And don't look at me like that, you disgusting murderer," Vernon handed him gasoline and a lighter, watching with an evil grin as Harry suppressed a sob, thanking every deity he knew for his paranoia. At least he wouldn't be missing anything. Vernon stood by, still grinning, watching to make sure that Harry didn't try to save anything, not letting Harry back inside until everything was reduced to a grey ash.

"Sir, could I please contact the Weasley's? If they let me visit, I will be out of your way for the rest of the holidays," Harry asked timidly, fearing another beating for even daring to ask.

"Fine, Boy, contact them. I don't want to see you back here for at least the school year, do you hear me?" Vernon spat, and Harry cringed, sprinting upstairs and writing to Ron.

_Ron,_

_Could I please come over for the rest of the holidays? I can't stand being here any longer. If the answer is yes, please be here as soon as possible, preferably at night. If it is not, then please keep Hedwig with you. Don't, whatever you do, send a reply with an owl…It probably wouldn't make it out alive._

_Harry._

Harry quickly read over his letter, then sent Hedwig away. Hedwig hooted and nipped affectionately at Harry's ear, swooping silently out of the window. Harry watched her go, praying desperately that the answer was yes. He could hear Vernon coming up the stairs, it had only been about half an hour, but Harry knew what was going to happen, and retreated to the back of his mind, staying barely conscious, not knowing what was happening around him, a blessing.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"Harry, psst, Harry, wake up," a voice hissed into Harry's ear. Harry sat up with a start, heart thudding painfully, looking around wildly – The voice hadn't _sounded_ like Uncle Vernon…

"Ron, look. You've frightened him. You know that he startles easily, even if Voldemort is dead," Hermione whispered, looking curiously at Harry. Harry stood, moving stiffly and painfully, feeling the effects of earlier that night, even if he didn't remember any of it. His two best friends watched as Harry grabbed his (shrunken) trunk from under the loose floorboards.

"Thanks for coming, Ron. How did you get here so quickly?" Harry asked, still moving painfully slowly, limping slightly. _When did that happen?_ Harry asked himself, actually feeling his bone move. It felt like it was on fire, and Harry couldn't suppress a hiss.

"Harry?" That wasn't Ron or Hermione… It sounded like Remus. A thought suddenly occurred to Harry.

"How did you get here so quickly? I didn't know Hedwig was that fast," Harry asked, watching as Remus picked up his trunk. Ron and Hermione looked guiltily at each other.

"Well, we were worried about your replies, and your last letter had blood on it, so Hedwig met us when we were only about half an hours drive a way from your house. Sirius is in the car," Ron said quickly, the last sentence the clearest. Harry frowned.

"I'm going to scream at you later, but now, I want to see Snuffles. Could you please take my trunk? I can barely stand right now," Harry noticed Remus scowl, and grabbed his arm to use it as a crutch, partly because he needed the support and partly to keep Remus from doing anything.

"Harry, will you tell me who did this to you?" Remus asked softly, but Harry just ignored the question, concentrating instead on moving down the stairs as quietly as he could.

"Harry, the cars just down the street, can we please move quickly? Hermione's leaving a note for the Dursley's," Ron said, watching Harry from across the trunk. Harry nodded, and followed Remus into the car, curling up and going to sleep.

**A/N:** Please review. Constructive criticism allowed if you say exactly what it is you want changed. Ideas and points of view welcome. Please feel free to tell me if any important facts birthdays, names, positions in the faculty, spelling etc are wrong. I will update as often as possible.

Lady Halaia


	2. Chapter 2

When Harry woke up, he was lying in a bed that was not his own. After a slight moment of panic, he remembered what had happened the night before, and breathed a sigh of relief. He would be safe here. A noise to his side startled him; Remus had obviously stayed by his side. Rolling over, he saw Remus, who was snoring slightly, and a huge black dog.

"Remus? Snuffles?" Harry asked quietly, making sure. Remus snorted softly and woke up, rubbing his eyes blearily. Sirius however awoke with a yip and launched himself at Harry, landing with two paws on Harry's stomach. Harry winced in pain. Sirius yipped again, this time in apology and moved back, tail wagging crazily.

"Morning, Harry. Did you sleep well?" Remus was watching Harry closely, making him shift slightly. Sirius licked Harry's face then jumped off the bed.

"Did you realise you didn't even say hello to me last night? You just got in the car, sort of curled up and went to sleep," Sirius sounded almost hurt. Harry smiled at him, rolling out of bed and giving him a big hug. Sirius hugged him back carefully; able to feel Harry's bones even through the thick sweater he was wearing. He could also feel the slight tenseness in Harry's shoulders, the slight reluctance in his demeanour.

"Sirius, where is all my stuff?" Harry asked, pulling away, ignoring the looks that both Remus and Sirius were shooting at him, and putting a falsely bright smile. Ron came barrelling into the room, Hermione close behind. Both skidded to a halt before they crashed into Harry.

"Harry, just in case you were wondering, your stuff is in the closet, but where are all your clothes?" Ron looked at Harry, tipping his head to the side in curiosity. Harry shrugged, and Remus and Sirius glanced at each other.

"Actually, Sirius bought some clothes for Harry. All muggle, for some reason," Remus glanced at Sirius, who was blushing. Harry was also looking at him, one eyebrow raised.

"Really?" Harry asked dryly. Sirius nodded, going into the closet and bringing out several bags, handing them to Harry. Every bag was filled with clothes, mostly jeans and long sleeved shirts. Harry looked through them, grinning.

"I charmed them so that they will adjust to fit you, doesn't matter when you put them on, they will always fit perfectly," Remus explained quietly, as Sirius nodded eagerly, looking like the dog he could change into.

"Thanks, I don't know what else to say," Harry said, giving Sirius a hug again. Ron grinned in relief, thankful Harry was at least a little like himself, even if he was acting a little bit more affectionate than normal.

"Mum said you can have a shower before we all go down to breakfast. Do you remember where everything goes from last time?" Ron waited till Harry nodded then left, Hermione in tow.

"I'll see you at..." Harry paused, trying to figure out what time it was. Remus pointed at the clock – nearly two in the afternoon. Harry laughed quietly and went to have a shower.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

**A/N** Well, that was chapter two. Please remember that I own nothing of this story, except little bits of the plot. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I never expected so many. I'm flattered. If you review, feel free to criticise, but please no flames. I like to be able to better this story. When it is finished, I will rewrite it, keeping in mind any adjustments people want made.

Review Replies:

Poppiecake: I'm glad you like my story, and thank you for being my first reviewer! In my mind, RWHG is the most obvious pairing in the book. HPGW is actually a close second.

TIckLEdoRAngE: I know it's depressing. I tried to keep it not so bad, and part of that chapter was written by Chauntahl, so I think its fine. Thanks for the nice review!

gryffindorgrl123: If I keep getting reviews like this, I think that my head is going to expand till I can't fit through any doors! I'm glad you liked it. Here's your update!

Geoffrey Bassett: Could you elaborate this please? What was so weird about it? I'd like to have it make more sense, and it's hard to see what's wrong when you write it, because you know exactly what you mean, when other people might not. Thanks for complimenting the story as well.

BeauxbatonBoy05: Wow, short review! Nice to know you like my story though.

australiaman: You think it might get better? Do you mean you think I could have written it better, and you expect this of the other chapters? Because if you do, that's what you review for! Thanks for reading.

Vellouette: What's wrong with slash? But future planning has shown that slash would not fit with this story. Nice to know you like the chapter.

Nesley: First person to use the word interesting. I'm hoping to make it even more interesting later, after the time travel comes in.

Hazel Maraa: Harry's seventeen, so once he's at school he's in Seventh Year. The end of GoF is disregarded, instead the potion failed, and Voldemort was destroyed totally. This was written before HBP was out, so it will clash with some of the information in that book. It is also written as though OotP didn't happen either. Does that answer your question? If not, just say.

Lady Gallatea Ravenclaw: Read Hazel Marra's answer for your answer as well. Again, if I haven't answered your question adequately please tell me, I will try to clarify better. Also, it hasn't really sunk in that Harry has been abused yet… Maybe it will in chapter three, or four. How do you think they should react? Thank you for pointing that out though, I'll try not to forget to keep their reactions realistic and in character. No offense taken! Constructive criticism is good.

AzureStar: Thank you! It's hard for me to get a hold of the books, and I'm not good with details. If you think of anything else, please tell me. It will be very much appreciated.

NancyPotterBlackLupin: Yeah, Voldie's dead. I can never get his character right, so I took the easy way out. I hope you like this chapter.

NikkyB: I've updated!

Marguerida: Yeah, that's about right. My reasons for Harry staying at the Dursley's are as follows: The Weasley's can't afford to look after Harry, and Sirius is till on the run. Remus is a werewolf, so he would be out, and the Grangers are Muggles. Where else could he go? Yes Voldemort is dead, and Sirius is alive because I have ignored the ending of GoF, and so much of OotP never happened. This means that Sirius never fell through the Veil. Does that make sense to you? Also, this was written before HBP came out, so the information in that book wasn't available. I am writing as though they are legal for magic after they have graduated from school.

Bluie Twilight Star: The reason he isn't hiding it is because he is still in shock. His reactions are sort of based on how people I know said they would react. I'm sorry if you don't think it is character. How do you think he should be acting? I'd like your input.

Mellyone: Did you like this chapter as well? I'm trying to update as often as I have time.

Anave Lipad: Yes Voldemort is dead, and yes to disregarding events of the end of GoF and all of OotP and HBP. Time travel is coming soon. Keep reading.

HandsOff: Thanks for reviewing. Yeah, his birthday's obvious, but if you can think of any details, or you find them, please tell me!

**A/N again: **The reviews took more room than the actual chapter! If this annoys you, tell me and I'll either write longer chapters or cut out replying to reviews. I'm sorry if you tried to review anonymously; I forgot to let people do those. I think I've enabled it now, but if I haven't I'm sorry!

Lady Halaia


	3. Chapter 3

When Harry came back down, hair damp and more messy than usual, he was surprised to see everyone sitting in the living room and waiting for him. Remus was frowning slightly, Sirius had a definite scowl on his face and Hermione was smiling over brightly. The Weasley's were all blushing.

"What is going on?" Harry asked, starting to feel rather paranoid. This feeling was not helped by the way everyone looked sat him, like he was going to shatter at the slightest thing.

"We were just wondering Harry, what exactly happened at the Dursley's?" Hermione asked gently. Harry froze, thoughts immediately flying to when he had first gotten back to Privet Drive.

"_Boy! I don't know what you're expecting, but I have had enough of you being here. You will be punished for your freakishness this summer. I will be doing everything in my power to make sure you lose your magic," Uncle Vernon spat at Harry, Harry shrinking back. He smelt alcohol on his Uncle's breath._

"_Yes, Uncle Vernon. I'll go straight to my room," Harry said and quickly went to his room, dragging his trunk behind him. Once in his room he shut the door, wishing he had locks inside, not just the several locks on the outside. He shoved his trunk that Hermione had shrunk underneath the loose floorboards. Just some ink and parchment was left out. He needed to do his homework, after all._

_It was a couple of nights before Uncle Vernon got drunk enough to do anything, but once he did he went overboard. As Harry begged and pleaded with his Uncle, Vernon hit his nephew on the head, on his back, till the skin broke and bled, till Harry's voice broke from the pain and the pain caused him to black out. When Harry had woken up, he had crawled to the shower to wash all of the blood off of him. The water was still tinted red two hours later when he had to go outside and start doing the gardening, wearing long sleeves and a sweatshirt with a hood even in the summer heat._

"Harry? Harry, kid, are you okay?" Sirius came forward and gently touched his shoulder. Harry flinched and jerked away from the touch, shaking and pale. As everyone else in the room watched, Harry turned and sprinted out of the room, tears starting to flow down his face.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Harry was lying on one of the beds in Ron's brilliantly orange room. He had been crying for the last hour as he kept reliving different parts of the holidays.

_His Uncle Vernon, advancing slowly while holding a red hot length of metal…A knife, edge sharp, pressed against his skin, cutting it slowly, ruby drops of liquid left in its wake as Harry screams for mercy…His Uncle, towering above where he was tied to the bed…Dudley shoving him down the stairs then stamping on his arm…Being locked in the now far too small cupboard under the stairs after all his injuries heal overnight without scars…Pitch darkness, terror, unable to breathe, pleading to be let out. The door opening, he was being let out! But no, he is smacked over the head and a small knife is slashed across Harry's neck, not deep enough to kill but enough that blood flows freely, then the vent, the only source of light, is covered after the door is slammed shut…His Uncle's laughter after he had raped him, his amusement at Harry's own terror and pain…Again and again…Can't get out…someone help me…Let out to do jobs…Arms pressed against the element, smell of his own flesh burning, pain…Nothing but pain, constant but sometimes peaks…Blank spaces of nothing when he retreats to the depths of his mind to escape his Uncle…_

As the scenes played in Harry's mind, Harry released some of the built up emotions. Near the end, jut before he had sent Hedwig to Ron, he had accepted it, doing what he must, ignoring the pain and retreating to his own space when he heard his Uncle. As he slowly came out of his trance, he noticed that Ginny was watching him intently, the pain on her face speaking of how hard it was for her, for all of them, to just sit back and let Harry cry without holding him, without offering him comfort through the warmth of their hugs, the kindness of their words.

"Yes, Ginny?" Harry asked, voice choked up and thick with still unshed tears. Ginny smiled slightly and seemed to hesitate, trying to decide what to say.

"Sirius has gone to the Dursley's. Remus went with him, and Dumbledore went to make sure they don't murder them. I think there is going to be a full trial. It depends what you want to do," Ginny said, leaping aside as Harry stood up suddenly. Immediately, weeks of malnutrition and abuse caught up with him, and he collapsed back onto the bed, hands held to his head.

"Harry, do you want me to go and get you something to ease your headache? You've been sobbing on the bed for an hour, and you probably need something to drink to replace the fluid. Water would be good. Yes, I'll get you water and some headache potion. I'll be right back. Yes, that's what I'll do," Ginny stood up, still muttering to herself about potions and the ingredients. Harry watched her in amusement, curling up with his legs underneath him, back in the corner with his back against the wall.

When Ginny came back, he had sunken into a deep sleep. Ron had followed his sister upstairs, and was astounded to see the paleness of his friends face, the trails where tears and fallen clearly evident. Harry looked frail and innocent. It didn't help that he was extremely small for his age.

"Leave the potion and the water here, Gin. Leave a note saying we'll be back soon, okay? I think we need to leave him to catch up on his sleep. We can't do anything else at the moment. Look at how he reacted to Sirius just putting a hand on his shoulder? Although he had seemed mostly fine last night," Ron frowned at the sad picture the scene had made. The look of pure terror that had flickered on Harry's face, the tears that began as he sprinted away from the room.

"Yeah. I wonder what Sirius will do to the Dursley's? We still don't know what happened. If there's a trial, I think they're going to use Harry's memories as testimony instead of him being in the room," Ginny wiped a hand angrily over her face, catching the few tears that began to fall. She still harboured a crush on the Boy-Who-Lived, but this time she knew better who she had a crush on. Hermione knew about this but now if was clear that she could do nothing about it like they had planned.

"I hope for Harry's sake they don't do anything illegal. Anyway, it's Remus I'm worried about. Werewolves are notoriously protective of children, especially those that they are emotionally connected to. Remus almost sees Harry as his own cub, that's how close they are now. Sirius is mindful that he cannot do anything or else he'll be put straight into Azkaban, but Remus doesn't have the same idea, he hasn't been in Azkaban," Ron said quietly. He had learned well how to be more sensitive over their sixth year, when Hermione had been very moody due to 'personal problems'.

"You do have a point," Ginny said quietly, writing a note quick note to Harry saying _be back soon. Hope you had a good sleep. Take the potion, drink all the water. Ginny and Ron._ After the note was written and put in plain view, Ginny and Ron walked out of the room, leaving the door open so Harry could come down if he wanted.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY GODSON? WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME DID YOU DO THAT CAUSED HIM SO MUCH PAIN, THAT HE CAN'T EVEN STAND A HAND ON HIS SHOULDER! I SHOULD KILL YOU FOR HURTING HIM SO MUCH!" Sirius yelled at the top of his voice at a pasty Vernon. Petunia Dursley was huffing quite loudly as she attempted to continue doing her normal routine quite a lot fuller now her personal slave was gone.

"He deserves it! He was a freak and is a freak. I was trying to help him! Beat the bloody stuff out of him! Make him normal!" Vernon roared hack, nowhere near Sirius's volume though.

"YOU HIT MY CUB TO MAKE HIM _NORMAL_! WHAT SORT OF MONSTER ARE YOU? I SHOULD-," Remus exploded, then spluttered off into nothing. He couldn't think of a suitable enough atrocity to inflict on Vernon.

"Now, now Remus, Sirius. We came to find out what we could. Mr Dursley, did you in any way hurt Mr Potter?" Dumbledore asked calmly. They were in the Dursley's living room, after Sirius threatened to do magic in view of all the neighbours.

"Yes. The boy needs it. Get rid of this magic nonsense. He'll thank me for it in the long run," Vernon blustered. It seemed that he was unable to lie. Maybe it was to do the with the lemon drop Dumbledore had almost force-fed him.

"What did you do?" Dumbledore asked forcefully, anger showing in hard blue eyes. Vernon paled passed what would be considered healthy.

"Raped him, beat him, cut him, burned him, locked him in his room, locked him in the cupboard, made him burn his stuff," Vernon said, horror forming on his face as he realised that he could not stop himself from talking. Remus however let out a howl of triumph as Vernon mentioned making Harry burn his things.

"He didn't burn his things, you great lump. He had his trunk with him when we picked him up. I have no idea where you got the idea that he burned his things from. That's impossible," Remus said superiorly. Vernon glared at him and opened his mouth to reply immediately.

"The burn mark from the fire is still on the ground. The boy was sobbing like anything as he through the match down. They burned like all magic should," Vernon's snarled. Sirius burst into laughter.

"The boy is brilliant. He made copies of everything and burned those. I knew Mad Eye's paranoia was contagious," Sirius crowed, tears streaming down his face from his laughter. Vernon's face was quickly gaining in colour, and ugly shade of purple that made him look like a grape about to burst.

"Mr Dursley, I do believe we had better leave before Sirius here dies of mirth. Auror's will come to see you later, when it has been decided if we are going to press charges. Remus, do stop looking at Mr Dursley as though he is your prey. You will be kept away from here on the full moon," Dumbledore said sternly. Remus looked slightly disappointed, but her followed Dumbledore out of the room quietly, Sirius with him. Now was not the time to commit murder.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Harry roused himself, stretching tight muscles and groggily remembering what was happening. His headache still pounded in his head, worse whenever he moved. He noticed a piece of paper and read it. Of course Ginny would write a note so he wouldn't worry. Still she had left the potion and he drank it gratefully, and then sculled the water to get the hideous taste out of his mouth. As his headache cleared, Harry decided he didn't care that they would be up later. He was going downstairs now. Creeping down the stairs, he heard a conversation that interested him.

"It does explain why he reacted so strongly to being touched, Sirius," Dumbledore said heavily. Now Harry was definitely interested. He was not moving from this spot till they finished talking.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

_In the kitchen, Remus, Sirius and Dumbledore are talking about what they had found out. Harry is in the hall, listening…_

"It does explain why he reacted so strongly to being touched, Sirius," Dumbledore said heavily. Sirius scowled, silently vowing he would get Dursley for what he had done to his godson.

"How could someone do that to anyone else? How could he do that to his nephew? I know they're only related by marriage, but still it's wrong. Disgusting. I can't imagine how Harry is going to deal with this. Perhaps we should get a professional to talk to him, help him through this," Remus suggested, tiredness and weariness in every move, every nuance and permeating his voice with a sense of defeat.

"No, Moony. Couldn't you talk to him? You've got enough experience with helping abused children," Sirius said, a twisted smile on his face.

"Padfoot, you know that was different. You had a solid support base. Harry doesn't, not really. His friends do things differently to what we do, and we would only undermine anything his friends do to help him. Besides, it was James who helped you the most. If only we could go back in time, I think Harry would benefit from that. Unfortunately, it can't be done," Remus growled in frustration, not noticing the smile that lit Dumbledore's face, that rekindled the sparkle in his eyes.

"It is possible, Remus. It would be hard work and tiring, but if he went back and would be back in a year and a day. He would go back on, arrive on September 1st in that time, 1977 it would have to be, and return on September 2nd in this time. That is, if we sent him on the last day of August of this time. When he gets back to this time it would be the first day of classes, which he would be ahead of. Miss Weasley, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger would accompany him of course. It would give him time to recover and he would get the rare chance to meet his parents. Like you said, James would be beneficial to Harry's recovery. Thank you for the idea," Dumbledore said brightly, standing up to start preparing.

Sirius and Remus watched in silence, realising that this could be very helpful to the young teenager who had grown up too fast. Looking at each other, they nodded. It had been decided. Harry Potter was going back in time.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

**A/N **Chapter Three done! Four and a half pages. This took ages to write, so I hope all readers like it! If you have read my story, I beg you, review. It is the only way I can get our opinions and any ideas you have so that I can improve my writing. Again, I own nothing of the characters and I certainly didn't come up with the plot myself. I had help from Chauntahl. Feel free to criticise, but please include how I could change it. I am trying to rewrite as I go, but it won't always happen. Changes have been made to chapters one and two! If you want chapter names, say.

Review Replies:

AzureStar: I'll need to keep that in mind when I need to find any information.

Anave Lipad: This one a better length? It takes me longer to type out when they're longer obviously, and I find it much harder. But I'll try to keep your advice in mind. Hope you liked this chapter!

FroBoy: Glad you liked it!

Gryffindorgrl123: Only about two more chapters. I needed to do a bit of introducing first. I'm trying to update every couple of weeks, so I hope you aren't as impatient as your review makes you sound.

The Female Nerd: Of course Ron and Hermione go too! I wouldn't dream of splitting them up!

Hazel Maraa: Glad it made sense. Why do people always say update soon? I know I do the same thing sometimes, but it gets repetitive. I never actually realised that.

TIckLEdoRAngE: UPDATING! Hope you like it.

Geoffrey Bassett: I changed that part in chapter one. Does it make more sense yet, or does it need more changing? I do appreciate you informing me of how abrupt it was. I asked some of my friends, and they agreed with you. I realise what you mean. If you find anything else like that, please tell me!

Spinnerofdark: In this chapter they fully realise what happened, so yeah. I must say, you have good taste in stories. Thank you for reviewing!

**A/N: **The next chapter might be awhile, I won't have access to a computer for a couple of weeks. I'll update when I get back. If you have any stories you would like me read, tell me! I'm always searching for new fics to read. Till next time!

Lady Halaia


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm going back in time! I get to meet my parents! What do I do? Why couldn't they have asked me first? Well obviously they knew I would say yes! I'm going back in time!_ The same thoughts were continually running through his head. _I'm going back in time! I'll see my parents! _Over and over again. _Back in time, meet my parents! _Harry laughed giddily. He was still laughing when Remus came to talk to him.

"Harry, are you okay there? You seem…" Remus struggled to find a word to describe what he saw as Harry stood in the middle of the hallway, laughing at apparently nothing.

"I'm fine, Moony. I'm away from the Dursley's!" Harry quickly thought of another reason to explain his dizziness. He lifted his arms and spun in a circle, his shirt lifting to expose painfully visible ribs.

"You need something to eat, then I need to talk to you. We have found a way that we could help you," Remus frowned at the pitiful sight Harry made. Harry was smiling innocently. Merlin knew how Harry had stayed so…pure. Naïve, definitely. And yes, innocent.

"Food!" Harry yelled, sprinting to the kitchen. Remus walked along behind him, smiling at how much the boy sometimes acted like his father. When Remus got to the kitchen, Molly Weasley had put a plate piled high with egg fried noodles in front of the poor boy, who looked at it like Mrs Weasley had just asked him to climb Mt Everest.

"Molly, do you really think Harry can eat all that?" Remus asked, as Harry looked pleadingly at the matronly redhead. She 'hmphed' and shook her head.

"He is far too thin. He needs feeding up," Molly said, glaring at Remus as though daring him to say otherwise. Meanwhile, Harry had started eating the mound in front of him, smiling happily.

"Well, it looks like he's enjoying it anyway," Remus laughed. Harry paused, looked up and nodded emphatically, before returning to shoving the food in his mouth. Molly smiled triumphantly and watched Harry eat. About half way through the plate, Harry stopped and pushed the plate away.

"I'm full," Harry said to the fussing mother of seven. Remus smirked as Harry finished up with a winning smile, using the considerable amount of charm he had inherited from his parents. Molly melted instantly.

"If you ever get, hungry, come back to get something, do you understand young man?" Molly drew herself up and looked at the orphaned boy she considered one of her own. Harry nodded meekly, green eyes dancing. His thoughts were on loop again.

_I get to see my parents! I'm going back in time! _He even began to change it into a chant. _Back in time! Meet my parents! Back in time! Meet my parents!_ As he ran upstairs he realised Remus was calling his name. Turning back, he saw the amused look on the werewolf's face.

"Yes, Moony?" Harry asked, bouncing on the spot. Remus shook his head at the young mans antics.

"You certainly are happy to be away from the Dursley's," Remus said, voice hardening on the name of the Dursley's. Harry tilted his head and grinned again, emerald eyes looking eerily like Dumbledore's when he was in a good mood. Remus laughed, smiling at the seventeen year old in front of him.

"Yeah, I am. What did ya want? I wanna go to talk ta my friends," Harry said, almost manic in his excited energy. Remus fought back another hearty chuckle at the boy's antics, resisting the urge to give him a hug.

"What would you say if I told you Dumbledore thinks he has a way you could know your parents? Would you say you'd do it?" Remus asked seriously, leaning forward a bit. Harry stepped back, eyes guarded once more. Realising his mistake Remus backed away immediately.

"I'd say yes," Harry said warily, making sure there was space between him and Remus. Remus looked hurt; Harry realised quickly but didn't allow the older man any closer. Nodding understandingly, Remus took a step back himself, cursing himself for getting caught up in the excitement of 'his' cub getting to know Lily and James. He knew Harry needed space, he needed to initiate any contact he felt comfortable with, not the others around him, not his friends, not those who wanted to make his decisions for him. That was part of the reason going back in time would be good for Harry.

"You will be going back in time, to 1977, when your parents are in their seventh year. James helped Sirius greatly after his parents tortured him in an attempt to turn him Dark. It didn't work and he went to James's house, stayed with him and his parents. After a couple of years Sirius was back to himself. Didn't you ever wonder why Sirius would allow James to stop pranking? It had nothing to do with James being Head Boy. It was that Sirius didn't want to prank. Ask anyone who knew Sirius well. They all commented on how subdued Padfoot seemed," Remus said, eyes misting as he thought back to their seventh year. The unusual tameness of Sirius's behaviour. That was the year the 'Sirius/Serious' joke had all but died after their first six years of school. How James had matured, becoming more reliable, easier to get along with. Lily had noticed, and that was when they started to go out. That was by far the year Remus classed as most enjoyable. He was jolted from his reminiscing by Harry coughing loudly and not exactly politely in an attempt to get Remus's attention.

"Remus! You've been out of it for like ages!" Harry whined, smiling slightly. Remus looked at him apologetically.

"Well, do you have any questions, Prongslet?" Remus asked, still smiling. He wished that he could go back too, but that was definitely impossible.

"Who else is coming and when do we go?" Harry asked eagerly, bouncing on his toes and humming the tune he had come up with to go with 'Going back in time, get to see my parents'.

"Ron, Ginny and Hermione are coming. You leave on the 31st," Remus said, watching as Harry's eyes lit up and he began to dance around the room. The 31st was in only four days. Dumbledore had already begun to set up the room that they would use as the focus, the place where they would leave and return.

"This is bloody brilliant! Going back in time! Get to see my parents! Going back in time, get to see my parents!" Harry sang, still dancing in circles.

"We have to go into Diagon Alley tomorrow, to get your books and school supplies. You will, of course, be disguised. We can't have a James clone running around Hogwarts when James himself is there. Of course, that would be a very good prank, used in the right way," Remus watched Harry as he spoke, noticing that at being told he had to venture once more into Diagon Alley, Harry flinched and looked at the floor.

"Okay. When can I go and tell Ron, 'Mione and Gin?" Harry perked up again. Remus looked slightly confused at Harry's sudden mood swings, but nodded anyway. Harry sprinted off, to go and tell his friends the good news, and to thank Ginny for the headache potion. He felt better now.

_I'm going back in time; I get to see my parents! I'm going back in time; I get to see my parents!_

**A/N **Chapter Four done! Three and a bit pages. It will be at least three weeks till I can update again, so please be patient with me. Review! I know everyone tells you or yells at you, or begs you, or some such thing to do so, but I really crave reviews. They keep me alive! They're more important than air! Chauntahl says Harry is _way_ out of character, if you agree, please tell me. And detail how he is out of character. Well, now to reply to some of the reviews.

Review Replies:

Hazel Maraa: I don't need persuading! I need encouragement! The reviews are coming slower and slower! sobs brokenly

Death Dealer: Need Dursley alive for my plot. And if you don't like it, DON'T READ IT! You really don't need to read it and then totally make the poor author hate their story. I sincerely hope you never read my story, or any others I put up, ever again. angry scowl

FroBoy: Thank you for the compliment! big smile

The Female Nerd: I like your review! Nice to see some people feel enthusiastic about my story. I had to giggle at your 'yelling'.

Australiaman: Updating in a singsong voice

HandsOff: I would dance too, but I don't do that. I'll just jump up and down instead. Sorry in advance for the long gap between this chapter and the next.

Grffindorgrl123: It was a nice review! I like the next few chapters, but could be awhile. apologetic face

Spinnerofdark: Yeah, as you can see above, he does get a say in whether or not he goes. Of course he had to say yes, or there would be no story!

TIckLEdoRAngE: Long wait after this, sorry. Very demanding, aren't you? I actually feel quite flattered.

Tay: huh?

Female half – breed: Well, after this you have to wait. Don't hate me too much!

**A/N**: Any suggestions for fics to read? Only 11 reviews, I feel snubbed. I got 19 for chapter one! Pouts Ah well, at least people are reading my story, and being mostly complimentary. As I have said before more than once, I think it will be a wait before chapter five. Please, I beg you, be patient.

Lady Halaia


	5. Chapter 5

"Ron! 'Mione! Ginny! Guess what! We're gonna go time travelling!" Harry yelled, throwing his arms around Ginny. The startled redhead yelped, turning around to look weirdly at Harry. Hadn't he, barely more than a few hours ago, been sobbing in his room? And yet now he was bouncing, grinning and _hugging_. Ron and Hermione were in a similar state.

"Harry? Are you okay? Did something happen?" Hermione asked timidly. Harry grinned at her, showing white teeth. Hermione looked curious and wary at the same time.

"Would you like to meet my parents? Dumbledore said that he could arrange it. So d'ya wanna come?" Harry was bubbling over with enthusiasm. Ginny was the first to reply.

"Of course! This is going to be so exciting!" Ginny squealed. Ron was grinning goofily, no doubt anticipating another Golden Trio adventure. Hermione looked rather more hesitant, no doubt for an extremely good reason. After all, every one of Hermione's reasons are nearly always flawless.

"Harry, I'm not so sure. Remember when we used the time turner in our Third Year? If we can change so much in just hours, and we knew what we were doing, what damage do you think we could do when we don't know exactly what is happening?" Hermione looked sternly at Harry. Harry tilted his head to the side, much like a puppy does when it is curious or confused.

"WHAT! You and Harry time travelled before!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione winced. She had forgotten that they had never told Ron about that particular adventure.

"We saved Sirius and Buckbeak, that's all. Now, Harry, has this been thoroughly thought through?" Hermione hastened to stay on track. The idea of time travel tempted even her.

"Yes. Our real appearances will be disguised. Dumbledore's thinking of an alibi for us to explain why we're starting late. We're not allowed to warn anyone of what will happen, or even speak about the future. Um, I think that's it," Harry said, thinking hard to see if he had forgotten anything.

"Okay then. We will all come. If we don't then we won't be able to keep an eye on you will we?" Hermione smiled at Harry, who launched himself at Hermione.

"We're gonna meet my parents! We're gonna meet my parents!" Harry half yelled, half sang as he danced around the room. Hermione, Ron and Ginny watched happily. Hermione was making plans to go talk to Dumbledore about everything. Ginny and Ron were enjoying the sight of Harry dancing, Ginny because she thought it was unfairly hot, and Ron because it meant that for now, his best friend was happy.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Four Days Later…

"Harry! Do you have absolutely everything you need?" A short, slim blonde yelled. She flicked her overly long hair, huffing with irritation on it. Hermione was still, after three days, not used to having hair that swirled around her waist. On top of that, it was a brilliant gold that distracted her every time she moved in the light. Now she knew why a lot of blondes were thought to be ditzy.

"Yeah, I have!" Harry yelled back. He also now had blonde hair, a couple of shades darker than Hermione's. His brushed his shoulders, held back at that moment by a strip of leather. He was his same height, but more tanned. He was still toned from seven years of Quidditch and intense training whenever he got the chance. He had kept his vibrant green eyes, but lost his glasses. Hermione's eyes were now green to match his; they would be introduced as twins.

"Hey. Whatcha doing?" Ron ran in. He had brown hair and brown eyes. As with the others, he had kept his height. His hair was cut brutally short, only an inch or two long. Apart from his height, there was not much to make Ron stand out from the crowd. Ginny followed Ron in, her hair also waist length. Her hair was a reddish brown, her eyes brown. She looked not that much different but for her hair and her eyes. Where with the others it changed their appearances utterly, Ginny looked like she did before, just a little more toned down.

"Worrying and double checking everything. Okay, we need to know that we can carry out our cover story. Hermione and I are twins, Hermione and Harry Granger. You and Ginny are still siblings and a year apart. Um, your last name is West. You, Hermione and Ginny went to a private school, I was home schooled because our parents wanted me and 'Mione separated. Yeah. We don't reveal much. No more than we have too. Yeah. When we meet the Marauders, no showing that we know them. I'm pretty sure that's it," Harry was buzzing with nervous energy, even more jumpy than what he had been for the last few days. He would allow no one to stand behind him, or out of his field of vision. He jumped at the slightest noises and was shaking badly.

"Calm down, Harry. Everything will be fine. I can't believe we're leaving in just a couple of hours!" Ginny was smiling, flicking her hair every so often. She adored her new hair just as much as Hermione hated hers.

"I know, Gin. But I think I'm having second thoughts about this now," Harry bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. He hissed through his teeth, staring at the ground.

"No, Harry. It'll be fine, and then all this work will have gone to waste. Think of all the things that we could do and all the things we could learn. Please please please don't back out now!" Hermione pleaded. Harry looked at her and sighed in defeat.

"Okay then. I'm gonna go sleep. I'm too wound up," Harry said quietly and went to sleep on the couch where he was sitting. Hermione smiled sadly, looking at Ron.

"I think it's a good thing we're going back. If it works like Dumbledore says it will, Harry might be more like the Harry we knew in First Year, shy and modest, but he laughed and he was willing to do anything for his friends. Well, he still will do anything for his friends, really. But he seems colder, and way quieter. I'm hoping Harry will be happier after this trip," Ron said quietly.

"Yeah, I think so," Hermione said. She looked at Ginny, intending to ask her what she thought about the trip, but Ginny was staring at Harry with a lovestruck expression on her face. Harry was on his back, mouth slightly open and he was snuffling slightly. To Ginny he looked utterly adorable.

"Ginny, please stop staring at Harry. You can make moves on him when he is better, but not now. He's just been through thirteen levels of hell and he isn't really in an emotional state where having a girlfriend would be good for him," a warm, chocolaty voice came from the door way. The three jumped and looked around. Remus Lupin was standing in the doorway, an amused smile on his face and his eyes warm and affectionate as he watched Harry. Sirius was standing back behind him, rolling his eyes.

"Uh, sorry," Ginny said, going a deep red that only those with red hair can go. Her hair was only dyed, after all. Sirius laughed, shaking his head.

"You guys, half an hour left before you need to be in the room to leave. I suggest you start saying goodbye. Wake up Harry before you go, 'kay?" Sirius smiled and left, dragging Remus with him.

"I think that was his goodbye," Ron said, shaking his head. Ginny poked her tongue out at them and gently shook Harry awake. Harry still awoke with a yelp and a hand held over his heart.

"Don't_ do_ that!" Harry yelled, eyes tight shut and breathing fast. Ginny jumped at the sheer volume of Harry's voice.

"Sorry, I won't. Come on, we need to go say bye to everyone," Ginny said shakily. Harry looked at her and winced,

"Sorry, Gin. I just don't like being woken up. Sorry," Harry sat up, pulling his legs up and wrapping his arms around them, hiding his head.

"It's not your fault. Come on. Gotta say bye to Mum," Ginny said quietly, smiling at Harry. Harry smiled back and got up, following the other three out of the doors do go farewell the Weasley's. Harry didn't really want to talk to anyone else. The next half hour passed in a blur for Harry. He was so nervous his stomach was turning back flips and his palms were sweaty. Over and over he was thinking _I get to see my parents, I get to see my parents_. Finally, all the goodbyes were over and they were all standing on one point of a pentagram, Dumbledore at the northern most tip. Opening an old parchment, yellowed and crumbling, he began to chant.

"_Temporus Reverse, Temporus Reverse, Temporus Reverse_" He chanted, over and over, till the four time travellers and all their baggage began to emit an eerie black light. "_Temporus Reverse, Temporus Reverse, Temporus Reverse_." The light flared, and when it cleared nothing remained, not even the pentagram.

**A/N** Sorry, but no review replies. I'm in the middle of exams, and I barely had time to even finish this chapter… It was mostly written before exams started. Please review! Be glad! Without **A/N**'s and review replies, this is the longest chapter yet! And again, if you have any stories to recommend, please do! Sorry for taking so long to update, btw. TTFN!


	6. Chapter 6

A loud bang was heard, at the same time as there is a bright flash of brilliantly white light. When it cleared, there were four strangers standing where there had been no one before, on the grey stones of the floor of the Great Hall in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. One was quite short, with blonde hair and strangely was looking as though he was about to have a panic attack; eyes screwed tightly shut and his hands balled into fists at his side. The other guy was way tall, with brown hair. He was looking around with wide eyes and an awestruck expression on his faith. The other two were girls, both with extremely long hair. One had brown hair and the other blonde. Both were about the same height, and were both looking around with almost disbelieving looks on their faces. Beside them were trunks and a couple of broomsticks.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" A voice boomed out over the Hall, cutting through the buzzing whispers that had broken out at the arrival of Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny.

"I'm Harry, Harry Granger and this is my sister Hermione. The other two are Ron and Ginny West. I have a letter for you somewhere, I think. Well, I should," Harry was bright red and stammering, hands shaking as he uncurled them and pulled the letter out of his pocket. Dumbledore had, before they left informed them of the contents of the letter. In it Dumbledore had written that he was a teacher at Hermione, Ginny and Ron's old school, and was worried about Harry's welfare, as when he had visited his twin he always seemed skittish and unwell. It was up to the quartet to explain the rest. Their memories had been modified so that when Dumbledore used Legilimency to verify their story it would show true without affecting their true recollections.

"Very well. Come with me to my office," Dumbledore stood and swept out of the Hall. Looking around, Hermione realised they had arrived just after the Sorting. Dumbledore's timing was a couple of hours off. The quartet followed the venerable old wizard out of the Hall, Hermione and Ron gripping Harry's shoulder and Ginny talking quietly about random things to reassure him. They knew what had set him off, they had all seen it. James Potter, alive and well and laughing happily with Sirius.

When they reached the gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore whispered the password too quietly for them to hear. It seemed that Dumbledore was quite a lot less trusting in this time. They stood on the moving staircase, each thinking quietly. Harry was wondering if he truly was insane. Hermione wanted to find out all about the spell that Dumbledore used and if she could see why it wasn't quite accurate. Ron was thinking bloody brilliant over and over again. Ginny was staring at Harry; glad they had only changed his hair and got rid of his glasses. Hey, she was a sixteen year old, she was allowed to think about nothing but how good Harry looked…

"Give me the letter, please. Help yourselves to the lemon drops," Dumbledore said absently and accepted the letter Harry offered him. Harry smiled, feeling slightly less nervous. It seemed that some things never did change. As Dumbledore read over the letter, looking thoughtful, Harry and the others took a lemon drop each, sucking on them, noticing the taste of mild calming and truth potions. Dumbledore had warned them that his past self would use this to try and make sure that they were telling him the truth.

"Now, is it true that you all went to a small private school, except for you, Harry was it?" Dumbledore _twinkled_ at them over the rims of his half moon frames. Harry nodded, not trusting himself to open his mouth. He didn't have the strength at the moment to lie through even the weak potion that he just ingested.

"Yeah. Harry didn't come because our parents wanted us separated. They decided to give him a home education, to try and get us to be a bit more independent of each other. I met Ron and Ginny there, and they spent a couple of holidays with us and so we are all now friends. And then I found out – no, that's not for me to tell," Hermione stopped and looked at Ginny. It was her turn to talk.

"Me and Ron met Hermione at school, and she took us back to her house. We met Harry, and all of us got along. But then we found out about Harry, and informed one of our teachers. He then sent us here, and so here we are," Ginny smiled at Dumbledore and relaxed even further.

"What is it that you found out about young Harry here?" Dumbledore leaned forward and steepled his fingers, looking intently at Harry. Harry, feeling trapped, leaned back and stammered unintelligibly. Hermione leaned over and gave Harry a hug, which was a bad idea. Harry shrank back even further into his seat and looked like he wanted to disappear, his eyes wide and resembling those of a terrified, trapped wild animal. Seeing his distress, Ron decided to answer for him.

"His family, they didn't like him very much. It was fine when Hermione was there," Ron resisted the urge to say he was lying, that wouldn't do their story any good. But you could see him hesitate, and Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.

"Our parents abused him, especially our father," Hermione said quietly. Ginny was talking quietly to Harry, about nothing, how nice the weather was, about what she had observed in the Great Hall, making it sound as if she had never been there before, in case Dumbledore was listening to her. Slowly Harry calmed down, looking sheepishly at Ginny from under his eyelashes.

"Abused him, how?" Dumbledore frowned, watching Harry closely. Harry smiled gingerly at him, arms folded across his chest and a small tremor running through him. Hermione hesitated, looking at Harry. Harry shook his head and Hermione and sat up straight, trying to look relaxed and unconcerned.

"Oh, just the usual, screaming, yelling, beating and raping. Nothing unusual," Harry said, trying to sound flippant. He failed miserably, due to the fact that his voice had cracked and tears had started to fill his eyes as he informed Dumbledore what he had had to generally go through. Dumbledore started, apparently making a decision on the spot because he nodded abruptly.

"I suggest you compose yourself, Mr Granger. There is going to be four more people Sorted, a first in Hogwarts history, having students who do not start as First Years. How old are you all?" Dumbledore stood, motioning for the newest Hogwarts students to follow him back into the Greet Hall.

"Harry, Hermione and I are seventeen, my little sis is sixteen. So, are you going to let us attend here? It was the only thing we could think of to do," Ron looked seriously at Dumbledore. Dumbledore nodded, frowning.

"The three of you will be Seventh Years, with Miss West will have to be in Sixth Year. You may have to work harder to be at the same level as the others, or you may have an easy year ahead of you, I do not know. You will be Sorted now, and placed in your Houses. After the feast I expect you back at my office, I will ask James Potter and Sirius Black to accompany you. James Potter is Head Boy and knows the password. Quickly now," Dumbledore walked quickly back to the Hall. Once they arrived, he walked straight for James, whispering into his ear so that only he, Remus and Sirius could hear what he was saying, explaining what had happened to Harry and why he needed to talk to them after the feast. Then he went and spoke softly to professor McGonagall. She nodded and brought forth the Sorting Hat once more.

"We will have four new students with us this year, Harry Granger, Hermione Granger and Ron West in Seventh Year, and Ginny West in Sixth. Mr Granger, you will be

Sorted first, just sit on the stool and place the Hat on your head," McGonagall ordered. Harry sat and placed the Hat on his head.

_Your name is not Granger, Mr Potter. Why did you say it was?_ The Hat asked Harry. Harry brought forth memories of his time at the Dursley's. The Hat ahhed.

_Can you please decide what House I will be in? I want to be out of everyone's attention_, Harry thought quietly. He could _feel_ the Hat thinking.

_Slytherin, I think. And yet, not. What House were in in the future?_ The Hat chuckled as Harry jumped.

_How did you know that?_ Harry asked urgently. If the Hat could know that, what about Dumbledore?

_Don't worry; I was created to look inside people's heads. I think you should be in "_GRYFFINDOR!!!" The Hat yelled the last word, and as he removed the Hat, he saw James wave him over. Dumbledore had spoken to him already, and James's face was serious.

"I need to talk to you tonight, after we have all spoken to Dumbledore and your friends as well," James whispered, brown eyes kind. Sirius nodded and smiled hesitantly at Harry. Harry nodded in acceptance, gingerly returning Sirius's smile. It would be hard to see Sirius and not let slip that he knew him, same with Remus. Worse with Peter Pettigrew. He hated Pettigrew with a passion.

"GRYFFINDOR!!!" The Hat announced Hermione's House. Hermione was the one he was most worried about; Harry had thought she might be put into Ravenclaw.

"GRYFFINDOR!!!' The Hat did not even need an entire second on Ron's head, Harry noticed. He smiled, remembering his first year. The same thing had happened to Malfoy. When his two closest friends sat on either side of him, Harry relaxed a bit. James gave his friends the same message he had given Harry. They nodded and smiled at the Head Boy.

"GRYFFINDOR!!" The Hat had Sorted Ginny. All of them had stayed in Gryffindor, for which Harry was grateful. Ginny was given the same message as the others, and everyone began the serious task of eating. Around them people were talking excitedly.

"James, what pranks are we going to pull on the Slytherin's this year?" Peter asked James excitedly as Harry listened in. Remus made a weird disapproving noise in his throat.

"We aren't, not for awhile. There are more serious things to do than pull pranks," James said. Peter turned to Sirius, expecting him to protest, but Sirius was nodding in agreement with James.

"Nice to see you're finally growing up, Potter," a voice said behind Harry. Harry jumped in surprise and fright, putting a hand on his chest and breathing deep. His heart was thudding at four times its usual rate and he could tell he was close to having a flashback. The only thing grounding him was Hermione talking quickly into his ear. He tuned in to what she was saying.

"And I think you can try out for their Quidditch team, finally use that broom that your godfather brought you. Their Seeker left last year, meaning that you'll be an easy choice. You're a prodigy at Quidditch, you know that. And then you can start having fun again. Give you something positive to think about. Especially if you win, then you can be on an adrenalin high not caused by anyone related to you. Tomorrow, we'll get up early and you can go flying, by the way. It won't be for long because we don't you to hurt yourself, but even five minutes flying would help your spirits up," Hermione was speaking in a gentle voice to Harry, but glaring at the redheaded Ravenclaw who had startled Harry so much.

"What? It's not like I did anything wrong in talking to Potter, whoever you are. Oh yeah, Hermione. So would you please stop glaring at me?" Lily Evans, current Head Girl and James Potter's future wife. Hermione averted her gaze, instead focusing on Ron, gaining an almost dreamy look on her face. James barely glanced at Lily, instead watching Harry, concern written all over his face. Lily huffed at being ignored and stormed off. James looked after her, looking quite confused. In front of them, the food disappeared, leaving the silver plates clear.

Dumbledore stood up and walked away, to his office. James took this as a signal and stood also, motioning for Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Sirius to follow him. They obeyed, following James out of the Hall, quiet and thoughtful. Harry had gotten a shock over how James was acting. From all the stories he would have been laughing and joking, planning pranks as soon as he got in the Hall. But then again, Remus had said he had changed in his Seventh Year.

"Harry, are you alright?" Harry jumped when James talked to him, and looked with wide eyes at his future father. James smiled encouragingly at the now blonde boy, nodding at Sirius.

"If you ever need to talk to someone who has been through at least part of what you have, I'd suggest talking to my friend, Sirius Black. He's not like the other Black's," James added hurriedly, mistaking the look that flickered in Harry's eyes, misinterpreting the pain at having it confirmed that his godfather had been abused for fear of the name of the Blacks.

"If you say so, James, is it? Thanks for this, by the way. For not acting pityingly, or looking at me weirdly. Even my friends were like that, still are sometimes. I appreciate that you don't," Harry smiled at James, who smiled brightly back.

"Maybe later you can join me in a prank against the Slytherin's, oh greatest Quidditch star. Yes, I heard Hermione talking to you about trying out for the team. I think you should, especially if you are as good as your sister says you are. She is your sister, yeah?" James tilted his head to look enquiringly at Harry.

"She is my twin, actually. When are the tryouts?" Harry switched the subject back to Quidditch.

"Oh, in a couple of weeks time. I'm a Chaser, Sirius is a Beater. I'll tell you a couple of days before the tryouts, okay?" James continued to smile at Harry, even as he whispered the password to the statue.

When they arrived at the office, Dumbledore was twinkling.

"Mr Potter, this is a new occurrence, you in my office but not in trouble," Dumbledore said to one of his favourite students, eyes twinkling madly. James Potter grinned back at him.

"Oh, I know. I intend to spend as little time as possible in this office this year. After all, I have too many responsibilities to be mucking around much this year. I need to make sure the newcomers and Sirius are okay, and I have my Head Boy duties and Quidditch. By the way, why are we up here?" James sat down in a chair, sprawling out comfortably.

"I don't think it's necessary anymore, except to tell you that Mr Granger and Mr West will be staying in your dorm, Sirius. Miss Granger will be with the Sixth Years with Miss West as there is no room in the Seventh Year girl's dorm. All their stuff is already there. And I was going to ask you to keep an eye on them, show them around. Their timetables match yours, Remus's and Sirius's perfectly. Now, it is time for bed. Goodnight," Dumbledore smiled genially at the six teenagers, ushering them out of his office. They all left, walking along the stone Halls, the newcomers following along after James and Sirius. No one tried to talk, they just walked in silence. Eventually, they reached the Fat Lady.

"Snivellus," James said clearly, so that those behind him could catch it. Ron couldn't help but snort.

"I couldn't help it. Severus Snape is a Slytherin and I sincerely hate him. We Marauders – me, Sirius, Remus and Peter – we call him Snivellus. Come on, I'll show you where you sleep. Then I have to go to my rooms. Head Boy, so I don't sleep in the Dorms. Girls, Sixth year dorm for you is up, the sixth door along. It will be written on the door. Ron, Harry, follow me and Sirius," James said, immediately taking charge.

"Now we know where Harry gets it from, right Hermione?" Ron said under his breath to Hermione. Hermione giggled and nodded, noting the amused look on Harry's face. He had been known to take charge in just the same way, even if it would have been easier to just let others do so.

"Right. You need to sort out who sleeps where, okay?" They had left the girls at the door leading to the girl's dormitory. Harry and Ron were grinning at each other, until Harry remembered something.

"I get nightmares, so I'm going to have silencing and shielding spells up around my bed, okay?" Harry said quickly. James's face immediately went stern.

"No spells in the dorm. If you have nightmares, you will be able to talk to someone. After all, they will already be awake. I will find out if you put spells up. You need to work through this and you can't do that if you're hiding everything. Actually, I might talk to Dumbledore, stay in the dorm. No, that won't do anything. Remus, I'm trusting you to look after these guys. Night now," James grinned, patted Harry on the head and walked out. Harry grimaced and looked at the others, then sat on the bed closest to the door, shut the curtains, got changed and got in, closing his eyes and wishing he could put up spells. He had done so for years, and it made him feel safe. Now though, sleep was tugging at the edges of his consciousness, persistent and irresistible. With a feeling of dread, Harry gave in, drifting off into unending blackness and cold, unforgiving memories.

Edited: 15/07/06


	7. Chapter 7

HARRY'S NIGHTMARE

Harry ran through the cold stone rooms of Hogwarts castle, searching for what he had lost. Inside the classrooms lay beaten and bloody bodies, beyond recognition, so mangled were they. After him rang cold, high laughter and tormented screams. He stumbled and tripped. In front of him stood Cedric Diggory and others who had died in the war, between his Fourth and Sixth Year.

"It's your fault!" Voices with no body screamed at him. Though they did not open their mouths, Harry knew it was those who were no more, blaming him, condemning him.

"You could have saved us. You are weak, and a coward. Weak. You betrayed us. You are the cause of our deaths. You deserve to die," Cedric stepped forward and kicked Harry in the stomach before moving back again.

As Harry sobbed and begged for forgiveness, the apparitions moved away, forming a path for the owner of the high, cold laugh. The creature that walked forward was more horrific than anything Harry had ever seen. Blood dripped from blood-stained hands. It's twisted and mangled body stepped forward, dripping blood. Sections of its skin had been torn away, revealing pulsing muscles and clean white bone. The flesh was scorched in places. When Harry met its blood red eyes, he saw pain and torment, centuries of anger and vengeance, the promise of slow and painful, never ending torture.

"It's your entire fault, you know. You should have saved them. You are weak. You are a nuisance. You should have died instead innocents. Instead of the young First Year Hufflepuff, torn apart by a werewolf. The two year old, skinned alive in front of her mother. That old man, who died of the pain caused by the Crucio as he struggled to reach his wife, who was soaking in a bath of her children's blood, eating their flesh all the while struggling against the Imperio. Countless thousands, killed by a flash of green light. You could have stopped it. You don't deserve even the cold yet forgiving of death. You need to live, tormented by what you could have done, should have done but didn't. You are a murderer Harry Potter. Thousands of lives on your account, and you will pay." The thing towered over Harry, dripping its blood onto his upturned face, laughing shrilly as Harry screamed. The dead vanished, as did what Harry knew was supposed to be Voldemort.

He stood, shaking and sobbing, shaking his head in denial. From behind him his father, black hair wet and matted with blood, grabbed him and shook him, meaning to tear him apart, as penance for all those who died because of him. Harry screamed…

END NIGHTMARE

Harry screamed and screamed as his friends tried to wake him. A small crowd was gathered at the doorway as Hermione shook her friend, sobbing. She recognised this kind of nightmare. Harry was not going to be able to wake yet. He could not wake up until the dream had run its course. She knew, she had tried every single time he had woken up Ron even through the strongest silencing charms he could use.

For countless long seconds Harry screaming, pain and terror colouring his voice. Then, suddenly, he was silent and still, where he had been thrashing and shouting. Hermione looked on with worry. She knew silence was a worse indicator than screams. And so she watched and waited with Ron, gripping Harry's hand and continuing to cry as she waited for Harry to wake up from his own personal hell.

HARRY'S NIGHTMARE

Harry tore himself away from James, breathing heavily. Suddenly the scene around him changed. Now he was in a peaceful glade, trees surrounding it. A crystal clear brook bubbled merrily in front of him, ending in a large lake that vanished into the trees. Harry knew where he was and he wanted out, but instead he sank to his knees, unable to move, unable to tear his eyes from the scene in front of him, shimmering as though it was a mirage. It was a memory, of a time when he had faced Voldemort. Neville Longbottom had stepped in.

"Harry, run! You need to get away!" Neville yelled at a bloody version of Harry that lay on the other side of the brook from where spectator-Harry was watching.

"No, Neville. He'll kill you! You should leave, get back to Hogwarts. Please, too many have been killed by him, don't add yourself to the list," Harry pleaded. He coughed up blood and tried to stand, helpless, weak. Useless.

"CRUCIO!" Voldemort yelled suddenly. Neville fell to the ground, screaming in sheer agony. Both Harry's watched on in horrified silence.

"Go now, Harry!" Neville yelled again, throwing a rock at Harry. It hit Harry in the face and activated, pulling Harry away as Voldemort cast a final spell… "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The scene changed once more. Harry floated, ghostlike, as he watched the mass burial of Aurors, Hogwarts students and even some parents, Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall. Expressions on agony and fear were uniform. Harry sobbed silently, realising that this was the scene just before Harry had gone after Voldemort, alone and armed only with his wand.

The scene changed again, but this time it was not some horror from his past. He sat upon a throne crated of human bones. He was commanding figures clothed in blood red, with black masks showing expressions of excruciating pain and terror. He was instructing them to attack muggles, and not only muggles but muggleborns and halfbloods. This was Harry's greatest fear; that one day he would turn into Voldemort. After all, they had far too much in common. The scene faded then became clear again, as though it had a life of it's own and was attempting to keep Harry trapped forever, but something invisible grabbed Harry, hugging him tightly and washing away remnants of blood with their tears, pulling him away from the sight that was trying to pull him in and keep him imprisoned forever.

END NIGHTMARE

Ginny clung tightly to Harry, sobbing, tears falling onto Harry's face. She barely noticed the faint moaning that came as Harry woke up, shoving Ginny off none too gently and jamming his glasses onto his face.

"Ginny? Uh, sorry," Harry apologised immediately, seeing Ginny sitting on the floor, still crying. He guessed that she was the one he had just pushed off of him as soon as he had woken, just seconds ago.

"Its okay, Harry. You've been asleep for at least four hours. We couldn't wake you and you would scream on and off. And then you went so quiet. We were worried. None of your nightmares have ever lasted so long," Ginny wiped her eyes, getting up off the floor and watching with extreme concern at Harry. Harry smiled weakly, pushing himself up so he was leaning forward.

"Harry, what were you dreaming about? You woke up the entire Gryffindor tower. A First Year came running to get me, saying someone was killing you," James was leaning against the door, having sent all the curious and scared onlookers away. Harry shook his head sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm.

"Nothing, really. Now do you see why I need to put silencing spells up? It would have prevented this," Harry said wearily. He felt more tired than he had already been feeling when he had gone to bed. Looking around he noticed Remus and Peter looking freaked, Sirius looking understanding and Hermione, Ron and Ginny looking like they were going to either pass out or start screaming themselves.

"You call _that_ nothing? What has to happen for you to admit that something was wrong?" James sat down on the bed, looking hard at Harry. Harry tilted his head, seriously considering answering. Then he decided to say nothing. After all, they had not yet found out what Harry's limit was for trying to pretend that everything was fine.

"James? Can you please tell us what the time is?" Hermione asked quietly. She was too tired and wound up to do even that simple spell herself. James nodded and waved his wand. Blue ribbon twisted itself into numbers, reading 6.30. Hermione groaned.

"What's wrong, Hermione? Apart from Harry's mother of all nightmares?" James asked quietly. Hermione yawned before answering.

"I can't go back to sleep. Come on, Harry. Grab the LightningBolt and let's go. Flying will help you to calm down," Hermione practically dragged Harry out of the room before realising that he needed to get changed. She let him go and Harry shut the curtains around his bed and changed in record time, then grabbed his broom. Ron, Ginny, Hermione, James and Sirius followed him out of the room. When they had stepped out of the portrait, Hermione grabbed him, allowing James to take the lead.

"Come on, the Quidditch pitch should be free, so you can do whatever without worrying about hitting other people. By the way, where did you get your broom?" James was staring at the highly polished broom with awe. The broom was almost black, with gold etching on the handle proclaiming it as a LightningBolt.

"My godfather bought it for me. It's a prototype, and no more are going to be made," Harry said. This at least was true. Sirius had ordered a broom to be specially made to suit Harry exactly. Speed, steering and diving were what it was designed for. Harry could move at speeds fast enough to easily keep pace with the snitch, and the agility if the broom meant that it was quite simple to make the fast turn or sudden dives needed for Harry to stay right beside the Snitch at all times.

"Damn, you're lucky. Your godfather must be one hell of a guy," Sirius exclaimed. Harry couldn't help but grin. Sirius had just complemented himself.

"Yeah, he's brilliant. He would do whatever I asked him to, buy me whatever I wanted. I have a complete Quidditch set at home," Harry trailed off, looking at the ground, and then he perked up suddenly. James noticed, and looked at Harry suspiciously.

"What are you so happy about suddenly?" James asked, watching Harry closely. Harry looked mischievously at James, before deciding to show him. He swung his leg over the broom, and then kicked off. He pushed his broom to its limits, going over 80mph. revelling in the speed, Harry dived suddenly. Then he pulled out of it, and performed several loop the loops, each consecutive loop smaller and tighter. Then he pulled the handle of the broom so it went vertically up, and then levelled off. Waving at the small ant like figures of those watching him, Harry went vertically again, this time straight down and without holding onto his broom. As soon as his broom had passed him so that his head face level with the tail, Harry grabbed it and levelled the broom off. He was only millimetres from the ground when the broom was fully straight, and he was leaning back, resting him head on his arms against the tail, feet up and crossed over at the other end of the broom, completely relaxed and stationary.

"Harry James GRANGER!" Hermione screamed, running up to him and tipping the broom so that Harry fell off it, laughing.

"Calm down, 'Mione. When have you ever seen me fall off a broom without dementors or bludgers near?" Harry grinned; the most relaxed Hermione had seen him for years. Since the end of his fourth Year, to be exact.

"Well, never. But you shouldn't do that! What if you did fall? Even you have to make mistakes on a broom every once in a while," Hermione sank down onto the grass, looking sternly at Harry.

"I'll be sure to make the mistakes when I'm low to the ground, then. Stop worrying, I'll be fine," Harry tugged on Hermione's long blonde hair. Hermione huffed, and then smiled, hugging Harry tightly. The others were still too busy opening and closing their mouths to say anything to them. Harry looked at them and laughed.

"You know, I don't think that there are any Snitches to catch here, so you can actually shut your mouths now," Harry said, eyes sparkling.

"Sorry, Harry, but catching Snitches by swallowing them is your specialty, not ours. And when the hell did you learn to do that dive? I've never seen even you do a completely vertical dive. What next, diving on an angle upside down while juggling?" Ron's face was practically green with envy. Harry looked at him with an amused smile. After all, they had been through this year after year after year.

"Oh, calm down Ron. If you go any greener you'll look like an apple," Harry kicked Ron, who laughed reluctantly and sat down.

"I think you don't even need to try out, if you're that good. But I'm not sure if you're allowed to use that broom in a match. So you'll need to use a school broom, but that shouldn't really bother you," James said, turning business like. Harry shook his head, happy again, and so he would stay until he started to think about anything other flying.

**A/N:** I hate this chapter, personally. Anyone has any ideas on changing it? Also, I would like to know why I am apparently on 35 alerts, but I am getting very few reviews? (Thank you very much to female half-breed, demolitionxlovers, australiaman, kcmprincess, froboy and charl1e for reviewing. I would reply, but I have no time. Thank you again!) More reviews or updates will take longer. I have several chapters ready to post, if the readers are good and review! Please?


	8. Chapter 8

The group was sitting at one of the long tables in the Hall, the Gryffindor table, surrounded by rich reds and gorgeous gold. Harry was still floating on the after effects of his flying. He had gone easy for him and was looking forward to when he could test if he had retained his ability to do air gymnastics using his broom. It would be fun. It had been too long since he had done flips or somersaults of any kind. And because of how his health stood at the moment, Harry knew he would have to work to get back to his normal ability.

"James, how much free time do you get?" Harry asked, already starting to plan his year, never mind that he didn't even have a timetable yet. He would get it soon, and if he worked hard this year he could have plenty of free time. Sometime on the last year he had uncovered a talent for learning close to Hermione's. He wasn't a genius, but he was better than he had been, once he got over his sense of inferiority and realised that yes, he could actually do this. And his spells were always strong once he got the hang of casting them. He still had trouble with non verbal spells, but he figured he just needed to apply himself a bit more.

"This year, not much. Our teachers will be giving us a lot of work in preparation for the NEWT's at the end of the year. Plus if you make the Quidditch team, even less time due to practice and games. Why?" James looked across at Harry, who smiled back at him.

"I just wanted to know, I would like to know what else I can fit in. Are we allowed to go outside of the curriculum?" Harry tapped the table as he thought. With Hermione to help with as in do his homework, he should be able to do all the study on other areas he wanted, as well as work at his broom skills. He'd need to start on the ground again, though. It was time to 'discover' the Room of Requirement.

"Mr Granger, Miss Granger, Mr West, Miss West," Professor McGonagall cleared her throat behind the group at the table.

"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked feeling quite pleased with himself for not jumping or screaming in a very girl-like manner. Hermione noticed and giggled slightly. Professor McGonagall, having had experience with the Marauders, was immediately suspicious but settled for giving Harry a disapproving look.

"I have your timetables. As we are not sure what level you are at, they may be subject to change within the first few weeks if you find them too difficult. Your uniforms are on your beds and your first classes will be second period today. First period every Monday will be a study period for all of you. I'll see you in Transfiguration," McGonagall handed out the sheets of paper and walked stiffly away, as Harry blinked twice and Hermione huffed.

"Find them too difficult? Too difficult? How dare she imply that _I_ could find something _too DIFFICULT_!" Hermione screeched her voice gradually rising till it was shrill and impossibly loud. Several students turned to look at her.

"Hermione, you're making a scene," Harry said calmly, although he too was feeling insulted. He might find things hard, but he always did at the beginning of the year. He wondered if that was going to be the reaction of all the teachers that year. It would sincerely annoy him if it was. Thinking that they were not as well educated as the other students just because they weren't there in the previous years! He would make sure that they all realised that they were just as smart – no, smarter than – all of the students there.

"Making a scene Harry? Are you trying to tell me that I am not entitled to feel outraged that it has just been implied that I am stupid?" Hermione asked with a deadly calm. Harry flinched. When his Uncle had gone that calm it had always meant bad news for him.

"No, Hermione. I'm saying you should instead put more effort into proving her wrong that shrieking about it. After all, me, Ron and Ginny all know that you could probably take the NEWT's now and pass. Come on, we need to change into our uniforms, and then we can lounge about till our first class. What is our first class?" Harry checked his timetable, which showed the following:

**Monday:**

Period One: Study

Period Two: Potions with Slytherin

Period Three: Healing

Period Four: HoM with Hufflepuff

Period Five: Transfiguration with Slytherin

Period Six: Transfiguration with Slytherin

**Tuesday:**

Period One: DADA with Ravenclaw

Period Two: Potions with Slytherin

Period Three: Charms with Ravenclaw

Period Four: HoM with Hufflepuff

Period Five: Study

Period Six: Healing

**Wednesday:**

Period One: Transfiguration with Slytherin

Period Two: Charms with Ravenclaw

Period Three: Charms with Ravenclaw

Period Four: HoM with Hufflepuff

Period Five: Potions with Slytherin

Period Six: DADA with Ravenclaw

**Thursday:**

Period One: DADA with Ravenclaw

Period Two: Transfiguration with Hufflepuff

Period Three: Study

Period Four: Potions with Slytherin

Period Five: Charms with Ravenclaw

Period Six:

**Friday:**

Period One: HoM with Hufflepuff

Period Two: Charms with Ravenclaw

Period Three: Healing

Period Four: Transfiguration with Slytherin

Period Five: DADA with Ravenclaw

Period Six: Study

HoM – History of Magic

DADA – Defence Against the Dark Arts

**Study periods are meant to be used for study.**

"Potions, Harry," Hermione said, laughing at the look of sheer horror on Harry's face. James looked between the two with a confused look on his face.

"I'm horrible at Potions. I never get anything right. Well, I do get it right, but it's only extremely average work, and not the way to start to show that we can do better than any of you," Harry explained, looking depressed. What a way to start off his idea. He'd have to work even harder at Potions, the one subject he truly hated.

"What's the bet that you get paired with a Slytherin," James said, shuddering. Hermione poked Harry hard with her elbow, then immediately apologised when he flinched. Harry knew what she meant by it though.

"Slytherin's? What's so bad about that?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded convincing. Yeah, since Voldemort had truly died the two houses got along better, but that didn't mean the tension and competitiveness wasn't there. It just meant that there were no more attempted murders among the houses.

"Our rival house. We hate them, they hate us. They're all slimy snakes and Death Eaters. You need to stay clear of them as much as possible," James explained. Harry nodded to show that he understood, and left the table, James quickly moving in front of them to show them the way. Sirius and Remus followed quietly. Peter had gone back to bed. He didn't have any classes until third period.

They walked along in silence Harry jumping at every out of place noise, even if it was just a mouse until they reached the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Snivellus," James said, unable to suppress a laugh. Harry shook his head and clambered through after James, the other five following. They climbed up the stairs, into the dorm. There, James said goodbye and left for his own rooms. Harry and Ron got changed quickly, and then went back downstairs, meeting Hermione and Ginny there without anyone else around them.

"We need to 'find' the Room of Requirement, and soon. If one of us can get an excuse to be in that corridor and pace then you need to do so. We will need the Room this year, I think. Then we can study and quickly be able to get even farther forward than I think we already are," Harry said quickly and quietly. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Ron? You've been rather quiet today. I agree with Harry, what do you think?" Ginny looked at her older brother, who hadn't spoken since they had gotten inside.

"Peter Pettigrew is in this time. Wormtail. Scabbers. Do you know what this means? We have to be around the traitorous little rat for an entire year, knowing what he will do and not even do anything. We can't even warn your parents, Harry," Ron scowled at the ground. Harry 'oh'ed in realisation.

"I got over that ages ago, Ron. Think about it. If we change time, we don't know what will happen. We could muck it up so much that everyone we know is dead, or not even born. Or we could inadvertently make Voldemort King of the World, literally. We can't risk that. Ignoring Pettigrew is not too much of a price to pay for that, don't you think?" Harry asked Ron, who nodded reluctantly.

"I guess. Anyway, finding the Room is a good idea. We should do that today. Hermione can worry about how she did on the first day, while we get lost and wait for the others. Does that sound okay?" Ron looked around the other three as the others nodded.

"It's decided then. Hermione gets to do what she does best, worry," Harry said, smiling at his faux-sister. Hermione poked her tongue out at them, giggling slightly.

"What are you laughing at, lovely Miss Granger?" James bounded into the room, grinning slightly. Harry suddenly noticed that Sirius hadn't said much more than a couple of sentences since they had arrived. When Remus had said 'subdued' it was an understatement.

"Nothing, Potter," Hermione sniffed, before giggling again. The other three laughed as well and James wrote Hermione's comment as an inside joke related to what they were talking about. And Harry relaxed quietly, revelling in being in the presence of the father he had never known.

**A/N:** Review? Please?


	9. Chapter 9

"Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. It is my pleasure to announce to you all that in ten minutes you will have your first ever lesson at our wonderful facility of Hogwarts. Unfortunately, your first lesson is Potions, which will result in you hating our fine establishment. But nevertheless, we must depart our brilliant Common Room and make our way to the dank, dark dungeons. Coincidentally, said dungeons are the domain of the dastardly Slytherins, sworn nemesis of all true Gryffindors. Follow me, unknowing and unsuspecting newcomers, as we make our way to young Harry's doom," James bowed elegantly as Hermione giggled wildly at his overly dramatic speech. Harry rolled his eyes as he realised where he got his tendency to be over the top when he was in an extremely good mood. Looking at James, Harry realised he could not be outdone, even if it was his father. Especially not by his father.

"Why then, lead on, oh dauntless leader. Without your unfearing and experienced guidance, we may be forever lost to all within the mysterious stone walkways of this most magnificent of marvellous castle. We the ignorant and lowly unworthy ones will follow in your footsteps, thanking every god that ever existed that one so perfect and wonderful as you would lower yourself to lead such humble ones as ourselves to that horrendous place that you seem so unwilling to go," Harry replied, as Hermione sounded like she was having some sort of seizure and Ginny was looking at Harry with awe.

"Nicely said, Harry. Nicely said," James said with approval, looking at Harry with a smile on his face. Harry laughed and looked modestly at the floor, a shy smile on his face.

"Well, if you say so. Your speech was for better in my simple, uninformed opinion," Harry demurred. Ron choked.

"Harry, I never knew you could be so dramatic. You have got to teach me how to do that, Harry. I could really annoy my family with that particular skill," Hermione said admiringly. Harry just laughed again and pointed to his watch, showing that they had only minutes to get to the Potions classroom.

"Well gestured, Harry. Come on, we're going to have to run," James said, grinning at his new friends. Harry allowed a smirk to creep onto his face, his posture shifting so that he looked like Draco Malfoy always did when he was proclaiming one of his new toys.

"Is that supposed to be a problem? One day soon we shall have to show you that running is not a problem for the Golden Trio or their friends, Potter," Harry drawled, as Hermione, Ron and Ginny, laughed, recognising the imitation of Draco that Harry specialised in, before he had gotten too quiet and serious to perform in front of his House-mates. James, however, shuddered.

"I beg you, never do that again, it makes me wonder if you were supposed to be in Slytherin. You sounded exactly like Lucius Malfoy, a pureblood who was in Slytherin a couple of years ago," James said, and shuddered again. All four laughed at James, planning on teasing Malfoy when they got back with this new shred of information. More evidence on their scarily large heap that proved Malfoy did nothing but mimic his father.

"I can't promise that, sorry James. It's far too much fun to give up. Now come, we are wasting even more time just talking here. Lead the way, James, and I suggest you sprint as fast as you can. Don't worry, we can keep up easily. Now, go!" Harry ordered his father imperiously. James laughed, nodded and ran. The others followed, keeping pace easily. One was not friends with Harry Potter for six years without learning to run, and run fast.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"You're late." A voice came through the door as the group of five skidded to a halt outside the door. Everyone but Harry was panting. Harry was looking at them like they were aliens from another planet. He was only slightly out of breath.

"Sorry, Professor Slughorn. It won't happen again," James said quickly, wheezing and gasping. Harry laughed.

"So you brought the newcomers with you. Well, come in and have a seat. Three to a cauldron. James, with Sirius and Remus. Um, Hermione, Ginny and Ron, was it? Yes, you three by yourselves. Harry, yes, you, Granger, you sit with Severus. Now, back to work! These who arrived late will find out from their classmates what to do, on with it!" Slughorn went back to doing nothing at his desk, just watching the class. Hermione and Ginny immediately set to work as Ron watched them, not willing to help. Harry was looking warily at the glowering Slytherin across from him.

"Hi, I'm -," Harry stopped as Snape threw him a dark glare.

"Just sit and stay quiet. Do nothing, touch nothing. Maybe then even an imbecile like you won't mess up my potion. So shut up," Snape hissed. Harry reacted instinctively, stepping back and bowing his head submissively, but swearing. But not in a language Snape even had a hope of understanding, no. He swore like he always did, in Parseltongue.

_Stupid, fucked up overgrown bat. Greasy git, Snivellus. Stupidest of Death Eaters. Rat. Snake food. Bastard. You should wander to the Chamber of Secrets, and DIE!_

"You're…you're…you're…" One of the Slytherin's stuttered. Harry looked at them, still with his shoulders hunched defensively. His eyes were wide, and he realised exactly what he had just done.

"I'm what?" Harry asked calmly, heart beating fast. He'd just pretend he didn't do anything. After all, Parselmouths had a bad reputation. He couldn't handle a repeat of Second Year.

"Nothing, nothing at all, Granger," Snape snapped, glaring at the boy who had spoken, then set to work on his potion, sending dark glares at Harry whenever he had time. Harry was glad for something familiar the uttermost hatred of Snape and a small smile played on his lips as he watched Snape work. He had to admit, Snape was talented at potions, even if he was an insufferable git.

So the rest of the hour long period passed. Snape muttering to himself and deviating form the instructions on the board and jotting notes in his textbook. Harry continued to watch, averting his gaze whenever Snape glared at him. In Harry's opinion, Snape's glares had lost some of their effect as Snape got older. It was far more disconcerting to see such hate in a teenager's eyes than in a bitter teacher's. In the end Snape finished the potion in the correct amount of time, and it was a striking green, just like it was supposed to be, giving of a faint scent of a rose garden in the summer.

"Well done, Snape and Granger. Your potion has been made to perfection. Now, who will try it?" Slughorn looked at the two. Harry looked over at Hermione, who shook her head quickly, pointing at the chalk writing on the board. Harry read it quietly. 'Ancestry Potion. To show your ancestry to four generations back.' He most definitely couldn't take it.

"Granger, would you try it for us? I know the Headmaster said that you were a Muggleborn, but often it turns out that muggleborns have Wizarding heritage somewhere," Slughorn said amiably. Harry shook his head, crossing his arms across his chest and stepping as far away from the cauldron as he could without bumping into anything else.

"I'll try it, Professor," Hermione said, biting her lip and shifting nervously from foot to foot.

"Well, if you two are siblings it would be the same, so alright then, Miss Granger, try out your brothers potion," Slughorn nodded and watched closely as Hermione downed a dose of the potion, giggling as it went down her throat.

"It tastes like a fizzy lime drink," Hermione explained. As she spoke, Slughorn shoved a piece of parchment at her. Hermione pricked her finger and pressed it against the paper.

**Hermione Jane Granger**

**Daughter of Anne Granger nee Smith**

**Daughter of Rose Smith nee Potter**

**Daughter of Anna-Marie Potter nee Jones**

**Daughter of Elizabeth Jones nee Gryffindor**

Hermione stared in shock at the parchment, showing it to Harry. Harry choked, pointing at the names _Rose Smith nee Potter _and _Anna-Marie Potter_. Hermione nodded coughing. James, curious, looked over at the parchment, and pointed at the name _Anna-Marie_.

"That's my great-aunts name. She's a squib. Merlin, you're related to me!" James gaped at Hermione and Harry. At that, Harry laughed. If only James knew just how closely he himself was related to the Head Boy.

"Really? Oh my God. This is insane. Look, Gryffindor. I'm part of the Gryffindor line. I think I'm going to faint," Hermione collapsed. Harry looked down at her, eyes dancing.

"That's a nice surprise, that is," Harry said absently. He was still staring at the parchment. Two things shocked him. One, he was related to Hermione, even if it was quite distant. Two, he was descended from Gryffindor! It explained a lot, that was sure. Yes, a lot.

"Well, class dismissed! You can all go now! Harry, take your sister to the Hospital Wing, would you?" Slughorn smiled at Harry and left. Harry levitated and Hermione out of the room, thinking hard all the way. He would have to talk to Dumbledore in his time about this, he would.

**A/N:** Slughorn is not based on the Slughorn from the books! I just used the name.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** This chapter is dedicated to weaslygirl for her review.. Although I wasn't aware that it had been very long since I had updated! Ah, time flies when you're having fun. Read and enjoy! And if anyone knows what a realistic level would be for having taken karate seriously for five years, please tell me! I need to know for one of my stories.

**Chapter Ten:**

All four were in the corridor outside of the Room of Requirement. It had turned out to be scarily easy to get there. They had left the Hospital Wing a simple enervate had been all that was needed and just wandered around the halls. James had been looking for them, and had noticed them outside o the room. Hermione, taking the chance, had paced back and forth in front of where the door would be, then pretended to be shocked when a door appeared out of nowhere, knowing James was watching. And now, James was warning them against going in. He, being one of the Marauders, thought that he knew the castle best and that this door should be treated with caution. Harry was getting bored. They had three minutes to get to Healing just along the corridor and up a staircase and Harry wanted to get into the Room of Requirement already.

Making a split second decision, Harry opened the door and walked in. He was shocked at what Hermione had requested. It was the ultimate safe space, to him at least. One big room, with all the furniture pressed right up against the walls, with no room for someone to hide. Along one wall was a high ledge that Harry could clamber up if he needed to, set with cushions in green and gold. There were TV screens showing various areas of the castle, like a muggle surveillance system but better. To had names underneath each person, a 'search' system to locate certain people and showed what they were saying, all in full colour and with clear sound. There was even a screen that was showing muggle programmes. What was showing currently was the movie 'Lord of the Rings', never mind that it hadn't even been made yet.

Harry's favourite part of the room was the small cupboard next to the surveillance system. It had a clear glass front and inside was various snack foods, all muggle, which Harry loved but rarely ever got. Coca Cola, chips, muggle lollies. Popcorn, extra buttery. A microwave on top of the cabinet, already on, showing a time of 11.29. Harry realised that they had less than a minute to get to their class.

"Harry! Didn't I tell you not to come – oh, Merlin's beard. This place is brilliant," James looked wide-eyed around the room, taking in the warm green and gold colour scheme, the various pieces of equipment that he didn't recognise. Harry watched him for a couple of seconds then concentrated on needing a route to their next class.

"James, come on, we've got to get to Healing. Hermione, Ron and Ginny, follow me," Harry said quickly, and darted out through the door that had appeared in between a green sofa and a white chair. Once he had plunged though, Harry was right outside the door of the room used for healing classes. James followed then Hermione, then Ginny and lastly Ron. They ran into their class and sat on their seats just before Madame Pomphrey came in, Harry grinning, Hermione rolling her eyes and James looking thoughtful.

Harry kept on grinning, pleased with himself, and settled back to listen to the lecture Pomphrey was giving them. He was going to ask for that room again next time he was in the room. Not only that, but he hadn't had anything bad happen yet, except for his nightmare. After all, finding put he was related to Hermione wasn't bad; neither was finding out that he was Gryffindors descendant. No, it seemed that his time in the past was going to pass just fine.

**A/N: **There is a reason that this chapter is so short! After this chapter there is going to be a chapter focusing on Remus and Sirius in the future, showing what happens in the hour after Harry, Ron and Hermione left. This chapter will also be important, so stay tuned!


	11. Chapter 11

"Do you think everything will turn out alright, Sirius?" Remus asked his friend worriedly. They had just sent _his_ cub back in time, where they couldn't help him or even keep watch on him. He knew he remembered what had happened, the four exchange students, most of all Harry granger, who had sometimes switched between personalities as easily as most people would socks.

"Calm down, Moony. Nothing happened, you know that. Well, mostly nothing happened," Sirius said, almost scornfully. Remus nodded, frowning as he remembered what _had_ happened, but was mostly comforted. Okay, so not comforted, but he forgot his worry in his irritation at his old friend.

"Harry has just been through hell, and you say calm down. I'm regretting letting Harry go now. This was a stupid idea. What if this experiment harms more than it helps? We will find it impossible to help Harry, the poor cub, and then where will we be?" Remus snapped at Sirius.

"Oh, you're being stupid, Remus. Hey, you know the room of Requirement?" Sirius changed the subject quickly. Remus looked at him suspiciously, but decided to let it drop.

"What about it?" Remus asked warily. Sirius tended to get way off topic, and almost no one could keep track of Sirius's logic once he had.

"Well, Helga Hufflepuff designed it, didn't she? So that she could help the students in every way possible, even after she had died. And then, Slytherin made the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione theorised that every Founder had a room, so where's Gryffindors and Ravenclaws?" Sirius looked seriously at Remus.

"How would I know, Padfoot?" Remus sighed, glaring at Sirius. Great, now he wouldn't be able to rest until he had a fair idea of where the other two rooms were.

"Well, you're the scarily smart one, who likes solving mysteries. Sort of the equivalent to Hermione, don't you think?" Sirius teased Remus about a time that was 20 years ago for them, but happening for the four they had sent away.

"Yes, and now I won't be able to sleep until I know where the hell those damn rooms are! You do realise I blame you, and you only, for the days and nights of torment in front of me?" Remus scowled at the sheepish Black in front of him.

"Sorry. But once you find out, you can tell me. You know, maybe if we hadn't sent Harry back in time, we wouldn't have neglected Peter. So he wouldn't have gone to Voldemort, and Harry's parents would still be alive?" Sirius thought aloud. Remus paled and looked at Sirius.

"You just had to say that, didn't you? Great, now I feel guilty for being the cause of James and Lily's deaths! Thank you very much!" Remus growled. He started to hit his head against the wall behind him. Sirius winced.

"Oops?" Sirius said hesitantly. Remus looked at him and then away, sighing in defeat.

"It's not your fault, Sirius. We probably would have ignored him anyway, because you needed the focus on you. Don't worry about it. It's happened, there's nothing we can do about it. What do we know?" Remus sat heavily on the floor, thinking hard. Sirius knew exactly what he was doing and sat down next to him.

"Harry gets better just being out of the time that his uncle's in. He perks up after just hours of being there. He had nightmares, but they slowly fade. He refuses to prank, and shows us both the Chamber of Secrets and the Room of Requirement, neither of which could be mapped. Hermione, Ron and Ginny are extremely protective of Harry. Snape wouldn't go near him, every time he did he'd get hexed. That was fun. I think Snape suspects that Harry Potter is Harry Granger. I wouldn't know why. Back on track. Dumbledore was suspicious, wouldn't let them go to Hogsmeade, but they get out anyway. At the end of the year he puts on a show for the school. That's all I remember. Especially that broom. Hey, wait! I bought him that broom! I spent the whole year complimenting myself!" Sirius suddenly started to laugh, loud, hard and long. Remus looked at him weirdly before laughing himself. Finally they both calmed down. Remus was mostly calm, though he still worried, and Sirius was feeling happier than he had for a long time. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was forgetting something.

**A/N:** Well, sorry but another short chapter. The only Remus/Sirius chapter in this fic, unless it happens past where I have written up to. Next chapter will be longer, I promise.


	12. Chapter 12

"I love this room," Harry sighed with contentment, eating a large slice of Hawaiian pizza, sprawled out over one of the green couches. They had just finished their first day of classes and realised that they might just have a year of revision ahead of them. It seemed so from the talks their teachers had given them. They had surprised McGonagall by mucking around the entire lesson, transfiguring their desks into various big cats. Harry's favourite was the large black panther he had 'accidentally' set on Pettigrew, who was in Transfiguration with them. He had been glared at by James, Sirius and Remus, but that was nothing compared to the look of sheer terror on Pettigrew's face as the cat had slowly advanced, then his high pitched shriek as it changed back into a desk in a large puff of hideous acrid green smoke. Ron kept changing his desk into lions of various sizes, and Hermione had turned hers into Crookshanks. Ginny had just laughed and watched them, having transfigured hers into a small white kitten.

"I know. That was a bloody brilliant lesson, don't you think, Harry? The look on Wormtails face. Try the Meatlovers, Harry, it's delicious," Ron said, finishing off his fifth slice. The others were only on their second.

"I will. McGonagall's face was way funnier though. I think she almost had a heart attack when you produced that huge lion. That was bigger than any I've ever seen before. But I still like my panthers better. Who knew that the Head of Gryffindor would have a phobia of big cats? Come on, she's a cat herself!" Harry leaned over to get a piece of Meatlovers.

"That wasn't funny, you two. She looked really scared," Hermione scolded. Harry looked at her.

"Didn't you catch that remark, Hermione. _"And now we will go over the easier things we've learned, to make sure our new students can keep up. Now, first we will turn matches into needles! Come on now!"_ Merlin, how insulting was that! We had to show her that we could do way better. I was tempted to show her my Animagus form, but since I still have trouble changing back, that wouldn't have been a good idea," Harry grinned at Hermione. He had taken a big bite of pizza while he was talking, and had just swallowed it. Ginny cleared her throat, waiting until Harry was paying attention to her.

"Harry James Granger! Manners! Don't you dare try and look all pitiful, it won't work on me. Don't eat while you're talking, and don't talk while you're eating! One or the other, please!" Ginny glared at Harry. Harry's eyes widened, and then he laughed.

"Is this what it's like to have a mother, Ron?" Harry asked, eyes sparkling. Ron choked and nodded, then dodged the hand Ginny was aiming at his head before settling back into his chair.

While they Golden Trio and Ginny were eating, everyone else was in the Great Hall, eating their dinner there. Harry had wanted to avoid the large group, after all, he was in a good mood, and wasn't sure he was ready to deal with the questions they were sure to raise. They had gone to the RoR to eat, and found several boxes of hot pizzas waiting for them. The room was the same as it was before, with two couches and tow chairs. Ron and Hermione had the chairs, Harry and Ginny had the couches.

As they ate the four watched the screens to entertain themselves. They had quickly found out to be careful who they eavesdropped on, one couple had been telling each other in detail what they were going to do that night "Kinky," was Ron's comment, and Ginny and Hermione had gone so red that Harry had to laugh and another group were complaining, about the food, the Hall, their common room, each other…. Harry had pulled a face and looked for someone else. By unanimous decision, the teachers were the most interesting to listen to. They had already found out that tomorrow they had three tests Potions, HoM and Healing and two teachers were suspicious of them Slughorn and McGonagall. Dumbledore was planning to talk to James and Sirius during Charms, and during Study to Remus, about tonight. Harry and Hermione quickly guessed that that night was a full moon. James and Sirius were no doubt going to find a way to explain away their absence to the four newcomers. Ron and Harry at least.

"James is coming, and we didn't hide the door," Hermione said quickly. The pizza boxes vanished and Hermione, Ginny and Ron crowded around Harry, a plan they had come up with earlier – pretend that Harry had had a flashback and they were staying to make sure he was okay. Classical, soothing music began to play through the room, and the surveillance equipment disappeared. A forest green carpet appeared on the floor, windows opened out to a sea breeze that couldn't exist there, pale green curtains fluttering. Just as the room finished changing, the door swung open, and Harry gave a yell and hit the floor at the loud _SLAM_ it made against the wall. He winced as he sat up. Now they didn't need to pretend Harry that Harry had, or was having a flashback.

_SLAM! Harry flinched. He hadn't meant to let the wind tug the door out of his hands, but it had, and now he was going to get into a lot of trouble._

"_BOY! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUUT SLAMMING DOORS?" Vernon Dursley yelled at his cowering nephew. Harry pressed himself against the door._

"_Not to, sir," Harry said quickly, as loudly as he dared. Vernon seemed to get even bigger in his rage. _

"_DID I SAY YOU COULD TALK, FREAK!" Vernon roared, offended by and imagined slight._

"_No, sir, you didn't sir. I'm sorry sir. It won't happen again, sir," Harry stuttered, paling and pressing against the door even more, feeling the door handle dig into his back._

"_Well, it just did, didn't it boy?" Vernon's voice quietened went smooth. It was a dangerous sign for Harry, and he knew it. He lunged to the side and yanked open the door, hoping to make it outside. It wasn't going to happen though. The door only open a couple of centimetres when Vernon grabbed Harry by the scruff of the neck and yanked him back, throwing him against the wall. With a sickening _crack_ Harry heard rather than felt his arm break. In some sort of fury induced trance, Dursley hit, punched and kicked his already much abused nephew until Harry passed out from the pain. When he finally awoke, his uncle was leering at him, and shoved him into the bathroom. Harry took advantage of this to drag himself into the shower and wash as much blood off of himself as he could. When he got out he looked in the mirror. His face was unrecognisable. All he could see was his green eyes, and even those had been changed. They were dull, haunted. Desperate. His face was a mass of bruises and cuts. He didn't dare look anywhere else. He wouldn't like what he saw. Once he got out, would anyone know who he was? Or would he be disfigured, hated because of how he now looked, for the rest of his life? The sound of heavy footsteps shook Harry out of his depressing thoughts. It was his uncle, come to lock him in the cupboard under the stairs, as he had a visitor coming that night. _

_Harry's last thought as he was hit the wall at the back of the cupboard, getting even more hurt, was that no, he wouldn't be ridiculed. One had to be alive to be ridiculed._

"Harry?" A face swam into Harry's vision. Harry immediately shoved himself as far back as he could, away from the voice, the touch.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Harry screamed, shaking and sobbing, gasping for breath and anticipating the heavy blow that would come from speaking out against whoever had just spoken to him. He couldn't see properly, everything was blurry. He felt around wildly for his glasses. Gentle hands pushed them onto his face. Harry's vision cleared, and he found himself looking at his mirror image.

"Harry, calm down, no ones going to hurt you." It was the same voice as before, low, soothing. It belonged to twin. How did his twin get into the cupboard? Why was the cupboard so bright?

"Harry, breathe. Calm down," Hermione, Harry thought dazedly. What was Hermione doing at Privet Drive? No, not Privet Drive, Hogwarts. He was at Hogwarts in his father's time. The mirror image was his father, James.

"James?" Harry asked groggily, tears still streaming down his face. His throat hurt, it felt like he had been screaming. Harry pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, then hid his face. He was tired, scared and his memory was still catching up to him.

"Yeah, it's me. Hermione, Ron and Ginny are here too. No one's going to hurt you. Sirius and Remus are behind you, so's Peter. You met Peter, remember? You were introduced in Transfiguration," James said, still sitting in front of Harry, arms lying on his lap, brown eyes watching with concern.

"Panthers. McGonagall is scared of big cats," Harry mumbled. James nodded and laughed. The loud sound scared Harry and he shrunk even further into his ball. James stopped immediately. Wondering if he should get a professor, James started to stand. An oily voice at the door stopped him.

"It looks like I've stumbled on a lion's den," Snape drawled, looking at Harry. Harry looked right back at him, noting something strangely resembling _emotion_ in the depthless black eyes.

"Snivellus get the fuck out of here," Sirius hissed. Snape looked coldly at him then turned to Harry; obviously he had a message for him.

"Professor Slughorn said to tell you the groups you worked with today are permanent so you are stuck with me. If you ruin any of my potions I will never forgive you. But then again, you wouldn't be to blame; you're obviously talentless at Potions, at least. Bye now," Snape smirked and walked away, closing the door behind him.

"Greasy git," James said venomously. Harry just blinked after him, for some reason, being spoken to in that condescending tone had shaken the last remnants of the flashback away from his consciousness.

"Calm down, James. It's not like he attacked me or anything. I think that's just how he is," Harry said. He had come to that conclusion during his fifth year, after he had heard Snape talking like that to other Death Eaters, Voldemort, Dumbledore, the Minister for Magic, his Slytherins, anyone he came across, really. Compared to what he was like to others, Harry had also come to the conclusion that he was being quite civil and kind to the Gryffindors during class.

"He's a Death Eater. He's evil, Harry," James said stubbornly. Harry felt an old anger rising up within him. Just like in his second year, and in his fifth. And let's not forget his relatives.

"Just because he's in Slytherin doesn't mean that he's evil. I was nearly put in Slytherin. I'm a Parselmouth, does that me evil?" Harry glared at James, scowling heavily. James looked at Harry in surprise.

"Well, no. That's like saying Remus is evil because he's a werewolf, or Sirius is evil because he's a Black," James said slowly. He looked at Harry in surprise when he noticed that he was staring at Remus.

"You're a werewolf?" Harry asked slowly. Some sort of reaction was required.

"Brilliant! Is it true that you're stronger and faster than normal people and all that stuff?" Ron asked excitedly.

"Would you mind telling me everything you know about werewolves?" Hermione asked anxiously, already searching for pen and paper.

"Why are you looking at us like that?" Ginny asked, noticing the wide eyed looks they were getting.

"You don't hate Remus?" Sirius asked in amazement.

"Why would we hate him? Did he go up to a werewolf and say 'Hi, I'm Remus. I'd like you to some to my house on the next full moon and bite me so that I can terrorise poor, innocent people?' I wouldn't think so, so why would we hate him?" Harry looked seriously confused. He never got the prejudices of the world. Even after everything he had gone through he was still as naïve as anyone could be.

"You're a Parselmouth," Sirius said slowly. Harry realised he was going to have trouble with Sirius unless he convinced him that he was good quickly.

"And you're a Black. Do I blame you for something your relatives did? It's not like I chose to be able to talk to snakes. In fact, I found out when I was stopping a snake from eating one of my friends," Harry said flatly. Sirius winced and looked sheepish.

"Sorry? But I still can't like any of the Slytherins. Whether you want to believe it or not, most of them will end up being Death Eaters. Pressure from family and friends and the way most of them have been brought up with make sure of that," Sirius said quietly. Harry nodded in understanding, but had to have the last word.

"That doesn't mean you should assume that of all of them," Harry finished, quietly. He turned around and walked away, then turned and walked right back in again.

"Why did you do that?" James asked curiously. Sirius was snickering and Remus was still looking shell-shocked about the fours reaction.

"I don't know the way back to the common room," Harry explained sheepishly. The others laughed at him, and James took the lead back to the common room. Harry was exhausted, and he still had to do his homework. Oh well, that was what Hermione was for. Harry yawned, and pulled out parchment, looking hopefully at Hermione. Hermione sighed, and began to dictate was Harry should write.

**A/N:** Me and my friends used to do that. If one of us didn't do our homework the others would help out. I hope you liked this chapter.


	13. Chapter 13

"Granger, hey, Granger, you've missed breakfast, and now you're about to be late for your first DADA lesson!" Harry stirred at the laughing voice coming from somewhere above him.

"Go 'way. Wanna sleep. Tired," Harry slurred, pulling the covers up over his head. Another laugh was heard.

"How are you trying to wake him up, James?" A new voice came. Harry groaned and tried to burrow into his blankets. Stupid voices, disturbing his blissful sleep. He had been dreaming about being on a date with a redhead. He wanted the voices to leave so he could finish his dream. It was such a lovely dream…

"I shook him, why?" The first voice answered the second. Harry debated hexing the voices, but it seemed like to much trouble.

"You don't wake him up like that, you wake him up like this," the second voice was still laughing. Harry couldn't see why.

"What on earth are you doing, Ron?" _Huh? Ron? Shit, I'd better get – too late_. Harry was soaked in a green substance. Every morning, Ron would wake him up like this, or Harry would wake up Ron in the same way.

"Ronald West!" Harry roared, falling out of bed and scowling. Ron jumped and grinned at his friend, laughing.

"You're the one who wouldn't get out of bed, idiot. Come on, ten minutes to get clean up, get changed and get to the DADA classroom. You missed breakfast," Ron laughed as Harry waved his wand. Instead of having the desired effect of cleaning the room, the slime multiplied. Scowling, Harry jabbed his wand, and the slime disappeared.

"No slime can withstand my might!" Harry crowed triumphantly. James laughed as Harry stumbled and tripped.

"Is he always like this, if he hasn't just had a nightmare?" James asked Ron. Ron convulsed with laughter and nodded. Harry was having an argument with the rug, demanding to know why it had tripped him up.

"You evil, Death Eater rug! You were put in here to torture the poor Gryffindors who have the misfortune to step on you! Evil, evil, evil! Go back to the pits of hell where you belong! If Hermione were here you would regret ever crossing me!" Harry yelled at the rug, pointing at it accusingly from where he sat.

"This is funny. We should do this again tomorrow, and have the others watch. Hey! Don't destroy the rug! It's new!" James yelled as Harry prepared to set it on fire. At the sound of someone yelling, he looked up.

"I have to get dressed. Weird guy out, same with you, tall dude. Out, out, out," Harry shooed James and Ron out of the room. The two boys were still laughing as they descended down the stairs to the common room where the others were waiting.

"You got a show, didn't you?" Ginny giggled. Hermione was looking up the stairs with curiosity. She didn't often get to see Harry in one of his weird, half awake states. The last time she had seen one of Harry's 'performances' she had had to stop him from stabbing his bed with Gryffindor's sword, while asking it politely to get out of his way, he needed his school robes which were on the other side.

"Yes. We have a Death Eater rug in the dorm, and it's there to torture us poor Gryffindors. He tried to set it alight. And I'm weird guy, Ron's tall dude. That was hilarious," James calmed down slowly. By the time Harry ran down the stairs five minutes later, everyone was calm and talking amongst themselves.

"Hey. We're going to be late to Defence if we don't go now. What are you laughing about?" Harry looked at James, confused. James had burst out into laughter at the innocent comment that Harry had made.

"Come on, Weird Guy. You're our guide, so get a move on," Sirius grinned, and James bowed, walking out of the door. Remus was missing; he was at the Hospital Wing, recovering from the night before.

"Are you guys coming?" James asked. He was halfway down the hall. Harry grinned and followed him, still yawning occasionally. The others followed them to the DADA room, bags slung over their shoulders.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"Just in time, boys," Professor Brown, the new DADA teacher greeted them amiably. The almost-late students chimed a hello to their new teacher and sat down. The only seats left were at the front, the very front.

"Professor, can you please give us an outline on our course this year?" Lily Evans asked as soon as the Professor had turned his attention to the entire class.

"Is it going to be like this the entire year?" Harry asked Sirius. Sirius grinned and nodded, ruffling Harry's hair. Harry scowled. Even when his hair was changed people had an obsession with it.

"Of course, miss Evans. For the first few weeks we will be concentrating on the Unforgivables, and so working on strength of will and dodging abilities. Then we will work on shields, mostly non verbal. Next term we will study werewolves, vampires and other dark creatures. The third term will be going over odds and ends, plus curses that will be useful against death eaters. Fourth term is reviewing for the NEWT examinations at the end of the school year. Be warned, you will be placed under the Imperious Curse. Now, everyone, take note of where you're sitting because you will be sitting there for the rest of the year," Harry frowned. He did _not_ like sitting at the front of the class.

"Mr Granger, name the three unforgivable and what they do," Professor Brown smiled at Harry. Harry groaned, that was why he didn't like being at the front, even worse, in the centre.

"Imperious, controls you're will. Can be broken by strength of will. Crucio causes pain. Can't be blocked, stops only when the caster wishes. Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse, kills immediately. Can't be blocked. The Avada is shown as a green light. No one has ever survived," Harry said in a monotone. Hermione giggled at the fact that no one had ever survived.

"Miss Granger, what is so funny?" Professor Brown changed from nice guy to stern and disapproving.

"Nothing sir. I was told that it is theorised that loving blood self-sacrifice could cause a shield, stopping the effects of the curse," Hermione smiled slightly. Brown scowled.

"While you are in this classroom, discussing such matters as the Unforgivables, you do not smile. These are deadly things we are dealing with, and you should not find anything even slightly amusing," Brown lectured Hermione. Harry snarled.

"Hey, Professor, weren't _you_ smiling before? So don't you dare go lecturing my sister," Harry growled. He was not going enjoy this class very much if the teacher was going to be a hypocrite.

"I wasn't smiling before, not while we were talking about the Unforgivables," Professor Brown said, looking with great disapproval at Harry.

"You were, when you asked me about the Unforgivables. So don't lie," Harry glared at the teacher.

"Well, Mr Granger, would you like to be the first to be under the Imperious?" A satisfied expression crossed his face, only quickly.

"Of course, professor. It would be an honour," Harry smiled charmingly, and tilted his head slightly. His eyes sparkled with a mirth that only Hermione, Ginny and Ron understood.

"Very good. _Imperio!_" Professor Brown waved his wand in front of Harry, and he felt the unmistakable pressure of the curse on his mind.

_Say you are sorry, say sorry, it will make everything alright_. The presence in Harry's mind pressed forcefully. The Imperious was stronger than any but Voldemort's that Harry had ever felt.

_Why? I don't want to. Makes no sense, you were in the wrong, bastard_. Harry knew that Brown would understand at least the gist of his thoughts.

_SAY SORRY!_ The voice thundered. Pain shot through his head, and Harry decided that he was bored.

"I don't think so, Professor. You see, you were wrong and I was right, so I don't think I want to apologise. And by the way, your Imperious is weak," Harry smirked and slouched in his seat, heart beating fast. Brown was staring at him as though Harry was insane.

"Can I have a turn?" Hermione asked suddenly. "It looks like a lot of fun." Harry looked at her and rolled his eyes. Hermione smiled mischievously back.

"As you wish, Miss Granger, _Imperio!_" Hermione felt the curse this time, and noted the same things as Harry, except for the fact that she hadn't felt Voldemort's will before.

_Step forward, and bow,_ Hermione heard the voice order. Hermione grinned inwardly. This was going to be fun.

"But I don't want to," Hermione whined and pouted, but moved to stand in front of brown.

_Now, bow, like a good girl should,_ Brown ordered. Hermione wasn't going to bow to _anyone_, and promptly proceeded to inform Professor Brown of the fact.

"I don't bow to anyone, idiot. Are there any other DADA teachers at this school?" Hermione asked imperiously.

"Sit back down, miss Granger. And no, there are not. You are stuck with me. Next person to go under the curse?" Professor Brown had apparently made the decision to ignore Harry and Hermione. This was fine with them.

"We will, professor," Ginny said innocently. She wasn't going to play like Harry and Hermione did, it didn't suit her. Ron was just going to follow her lead.

"_Imperio!_" Professor Brown said. He felt the spell glide over some sort of wall. He tried again and again, with the same result. Nodding at Ginny's defence, he moved to Ron. No matter how many times he tried he got the same result.

"Professor, are you going to let those twins just ignore you?" Lily asked from across the room. She didn't sound like she was trying to get them out of trouble, she sounded confused.

"No, Miss Evans," Professor Brown said quietly, and cast the spell on Harry once more. His spell slipped over what felt like a sheer wall before rebounding on him. He stood dazed for a few seconds then shook himself. He tried the spell on Hermione, with the same result he got with Ginny and Ron.

"Professor, you have already tried that spell on us. Kindly do not try again," Harry and Hermione said in unison.

"Must be a twin thing," Ron said to his little sister. The DADA Professor looked at him before staring in shock at the two. It seemed he had felt something that scared him, because he was pale and shaking.

"Class dismissed. You may do whatever for the next half hour. Just leave," Professor Brown said uncertainly. The Gryffindors let out a yell and ran out of the room, while the Ravenclaws left slower, moaning and complaining. Harry and Hermione left with Ginny and Ron, heading straight for the RoR. They needed to talk about what all four of them had realised about the DADA professor, and urgently.

**A/N: **I seem to be using my friends as inspiration a lot with this fic. My friend does the funny half asleep and half awake thing that Harry did at the beginning of the chapter.


	14. Chapter 14

When they entered the Room of Requirement it had changed to meet the need of the small group. A table with tea and chocolate biscuits was in the middle of four comfortable chairs. The surveillance system was out in all its glory, complete with a proximity alarm, set to sound differently for teachers, those tainted with Dark magic and one for students. The room was lit just enough for the four to see each other clearly. The room was small, almost cramped. There was nowhere that anyone could hide.

"Did you feel it?" Harry asked softly, absentmindedly rubbing his scar. It had been tingling since Brown had spoken to him, and had flared when he had used the Imperious. He knew why too, he had felt it when he had tried the second time to spell him.

"Yeah. This school has a bad habit of hiring death Eaters and people who wish you harm, Harry. Except this time, he wasn't after you," Ron said quietly, rubbing Harry's shoulder gently.

"It freaked me out. You know, you always told me that when I felt the touch of a Death Eater's spell I would know what it was, but I never believed that you were actually telling the truth. Now I know you were," Ginny said quietly. For some reason Harry remembered a flash of a dream, red hair and an airy laugh, but it slipped by him, neither understood nor remembered.

"Yeah, it feels tainted like the Mark they are branded with. It's horrible, isn't it?" Harry shuddered, he knew better than any the touch of one marked with the Dark Mark.

"Well, that guy is a death eater. I felt it clear and loud. It felt like he was mixed with someone else, like he was magically bound to follow their will," Hermione retched. She had hated that feel, that disgusting, horrible slip of a dark will.

"How do you suggest we go about this?" Harry asked quietly. The other three looked at him, confused.

"What do you mean, we? We're not the Golden Trio of Hogwarts anymore, not in this time. And you're not the Golden Boy of Gryffindor, of Dumbledore. We don't have to do anything," Hermione said timidly. She regretted her words when Harry turned on her, eyes blazing.

"So we leave a Death Eater running around Hogwarts? I think not. Do you know how many lives will be in danger?" Harry snarled, eyes looking distinctly feline.

"No, that's not what I meant! But it doesn't matter; you're set on getting rid of Brown. We will help. But we do it my way. Next DADA lesson, we keep the topic on Death Eaters. Leave _subtle _hints that we know what he is. And they must be subtle, or we could get ourselves killed. Do you understand?" Hermione glared at Harry, upset that even in the past, Harry had to find a way to get them involved in some sort of mystery.

"Well, now that that's settled, we can relax. These biscuits are nice. You should have some," Harry said pleasantly, leaving no sign of the dangerous side of Harry that they had seen, for the first time directed at them.

"You're scary, Harry. Truly, frighteningly scary," Ginny shuddered for effect when Harry looked enquiringly at her.

"Intimidation techniques. I learned from the best, remember?" Harry grinned at his friends. Ron looked nonplussed.

"Who did you learn from? Why would anyone teach you how to be intimidating?" Ron asked. Harry sighed. He would have to explain. Really, explaining took all the fun out of things.

"My uncle, every time he wanted to scare. Voldemort, because he intimidates people for the fun of it. It's an automatic behavioural pattern for him. Snape. Snape is by far the best at intimidating. Overgrown bat," Harry couldn't resist calling their dour Potions Master a name. Ah, the beauty of family feuds. He himself was part of three. Potter vs. Malfoy. Potter vs. Snape. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. It was annoying, but it gave him an excuse to pick fights when he was in a bad mood.

"Oh. Okay then," Ron said, shrugging. Harry sighed again. He was bored, he was. They still had quarter of an hour before their next class, and it would only take a couple of seconds to get to the dungeons with the help of the Room of Requirement. After a couple of minutes of uncomfortable silence, the proximity alarms flashed and the room reshaped itself.

The room stretched and turned circular. It was decorated all in red and gold. A pile of books on the art of becoming an Animagus sat on a table that remained in the centre of the room. Red beanbags were scattered through the room. Bottles of butterbeer were piled against the wall. A fire crackled near the door, but gave off no heat. The floor was a lush pale yellow carpet, almost white. The walls were a deep, blood red. The surveillance equipment disappeared. The door flew open, revealing James, Sirius and Peter.

"What is this room?" James asked in amazement. He could have sworn that it had, just yesterday, been green and gold, and rectangular. There was no sign of the marvellous contraptions, nor was there a ledge around the wall. Instead it looked like a room right out of his fantasy, warm and inviting, comfortable.

"The Room of Requirement. We did some research. Helga Hufflepuff, one of your Founders, wanted to have a way to help the students until Hogwarts herself collapsed. This is what she created. I think that not even the Headmaster knows about this room. There must be so many hidden rooms and stuff in this castle, I want to find them all," Harry said. He was going to tell the Marauders about the Chamber of Secrets, but he wasn't going down there. After all, there was a live basilisk down there.

"Right. I thought we knew all the rooms in the castle," James looked at Sirius. Sirius shrugged.

"I guess not. This is cool though. So it changes to suit what we need?" Sirius walked around the wall, looking at it and running his hand along it.

"Yeah, it does. We were…" Harry scrambled to find an excuse to explain why they were there, then realised the room had already supplied it. "We were perfecting our animagus forms," Harry finished, breathing a sigh of relief when James nodded.

"Why did you wind our teacher up so much? He wasn't really doing anything wrong. He had a point about smiling when the Unforgivables are being discussed," James frowned. Harry shrugged.

"We don't like him. People we don't like don't fare very well, especially not when the Golden trio are together, and even less when we team up with Ginny. I'm going to see how long it'll take to get him to quit. Don't look at me like that. The last person we decided we didn't like was a Death Eater in disguise," Harry wondered if James would pick up on what he was saying. Probably not, if the look on his face was anything to go by. He looked like Hermione did every time they had accused Snape of being less than good.

"Well, he's not a Death Eater, Dumbledore wouldn't hire a teacher who might harm any student at this school," James said firmly. Harry choked. He could remember just how many teachers Dumbledore had hired that tried to harm a student, namely, him. Quirrel, Snape, Crouch who had masqueraded as Moody. Then there was the inept Lockhart. Umbridge wasn't Dumbledore's fault. Remus was the only good DADA teacher Harry had ever had.

"If you say so, James. Shouldn't we start walking to potions?" Harry wasn't going to use the RoR's property of instant access to any place in the school with Pettigrew there. And going by the halls meant they had to leave now.

"Sure. Come on. Soon enough you'll be able to find your own way around the school," James spun on his heel and left, Sirius and Peter walking behind him, the last four following obediently.

The rest of the day passed quietly. The test in potions was easy, as were the tests for History of Magic and Healing. Healing was by far the hardest, because they didn't have that course in their time. But the four had spent so much time in the Hospital Wing they knew the answers to most of the questions. Harry's favourite was _what is the effect of a miscast healing spell, if it is cast with the intention of healing a broken bone?_ All he had had to do was remember his second year. Regrowing bones was painful. Charms had been eventful. They had gone over the Summoning charm, accio. It was the most chaotic lesson they had ever had. Then they had had dinner and gone back to the RoR to do their homework. That finished, they had gone to bed. Tomorrow, Harry was going to go flying so he was going to get as much sleep as possible that night.

**A/N: **Review, please. Any ideas for changes, feel free to tell me!


	15. Chapter 15

Ron stretched and rolled over, sleepily grabbing his wand to check the time. Luminous numbers showed 4.39. He yawned and rolled over to his other side, looking across to Harry's bed.

"Shit!" Ron burst out, falling out of his bed with a loud thump. Harry's bed was made, with no sign of Harry having slept on it. The drapes were open, which worried Ron more. When Harry went flying, he normally shut his drapes so that Ron couldn't see that he wasn't there and panic, which is what Ron was doing now.

"What? What's wrong?" Sirius groaned and sat up, shoving the drapes aside so he could see. Ron was sprawled on the floor, stuttering gibberish.

"Harry…Harry…he's not in bed…The drapes are open… Come on, we need to make sure he's not just flying. If he's not, we need to find him," Ron was pale and he ran to be dressed in record time.

"Come with me, we'll get James and go. Sirius, get up, this is serious," Remus rolled out of bed and changed quickly. Sirius did the same, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Coming, coming. Shouldn't we hurry?" Sirius walked out and down the stairs, half awake, yawning repeatedly and stumbling into the walls.

"Would you shut up, we're trying to sleep," Hermione came out of the room, in a dressing gown and scowling. Ginny was right behind her, mumbling and sending deathly looks at her brother.

"Harry's missing. The drapes are open," Ron said in a rush. Hermione and Ginny looked at each other and then looked back at Ron.

"Are you sure? Has he just gone flying? We should check that first," Hermione said quickly. Remus stepped forward, placing a hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"Calm down, Hermione. We're going to get James and then search for him. We'll find him in no time," Remus said placatingly. Hermione was breathing shallow and fast.

"Well, hurry up! Run," Ginny was jumping from foot to foot, pushing her brother gently.

"We're going, we're going," Sirius said, sprinting out of the door and through the corridors. The others followed until they stopped outside a portrait.

"Lily is a goddess," Sirius said breathlessly, and even with worry clouding most of his mind he chuckled. Only James would use that as a password. The portrait opened and Sirius ran into the small lounge area, yelling for James. James stumble out, wearing pyjama bottoms that sat low on his hips and running a hand through messier than usual hair.

"What is it, Sirius? Are you okay?" James looked at his friend with concern, noting the fact that he was still only half-awake and the worry clear within his eyes.

"Harry. We can't find him," Ron blurted out, impatient and wanting to find his best friend before something bad happened. After all, when Harry disappeared he was usually found beat up and bloody.

"Come on then, we've got to hurry. Where is he most likely to be?" James slipped shoes onto his feet and looked at Ginny urgently. Ginny seemed to be the one most in control.

"Flying, outside. Can we please hurry? Last time he disappeared, he… he was found almost dead," Ginny finished quickly. James looked at her curiously, but led the way outside to the Quidditch Pitch.

When they got outside, they could barely make out a small figure flying around, looping around the goals and diving then pulling up, going as fast as the broom could go.

"Harry!" Hermione yelled, her worry turning into anger. The broom stopped and dived, straight down, picking up speed. Just a few inches from the ground the rider pulled up, toes skimming the damp green grass.

"Sorry if I worried you, 'Mione. I needed to get out. I have a lot on my mind," Harry said, then he looked around. He laughed, noticing five others besides Hermione, all in various states of undress.

"What are you laughing at, Harry? We were all worried about you! We thought that you had been kidnapped or something!" Hermione shrieked. Harry looked at her and smiled.

"I am sorry if I gave that impression, but if I hadn't left I would have got no sleep and no rest, and been strung extremely tightly tomorrow. As it is, with you interrupting me, I couldn't finish my flying!" Harry managed to sound pissed off and extremely amused at the same time.

"Fuck. You had them come and get me in the middle of the night, disturbing my sleep, because you couldn't sleep? They were panicking. Can you never do that again?" James yawned, but he was smiling and looked greatly amused.

"Well, I think that about sums it up. Hey! I know why they were so worried! I left the drapes open!" Harry cracked up in laughter. Ron scowled at him.

"Harry, do you remember what happened the last time-?" He sounded like he was going to say more but had thought better of it. Thankfully the others were too tired to think much of it.

"Yes, I remember. But what harm can come to me here?" Harry asked brightly. Hermione, who had calmed down quite quickly, shook her head and sighed in defeat.

"I suppose you're right, Harry. Finish whatever you were doing. Next time, leave a note, yeah? Then while we wait for you we can do something productive, like studying, while we wait for you to come back instead of running around the school looking for you. Now I'm exhausted and I'm not going to be able to concentrate in class tomorrow!" Hermione huffed and stamped her foot, then spun on her heel and stormed back inside, determined to get at least a little bit of sleep.

"I forgot how she gets when she's tired," Harry mused quietly. Ron looked at him, astounded.

"You forgot! You do realise she's going to be at our throats all day tomorrow, and then when we could be ignoring the teachers and just doing whatever we want, she'll be making do work, or working ahead of the rest of the class. And then that will go on for the rest of the week! And then the weekend as well. Enjoy your flight, because you're not going to get the chance for a while after this," Ron advised. It would have been good advice, if Harry didn't always finish his work before Ron, and sometimes even before Hermione.

"We have DADA tomorrow. I think I'll mostly just ignore Brown. He annoys me," Harry said quietly, going off into his own world and getting off his broom, picking it up out of the air and walking back to the castle, completely ignoring the others who followed him. James was the last one to speak when they got back to the castle and split their ways.

"How did he know how to get outside? He hasn't been outside the entire time he's been here, except for the one time he went flying and he obviously wasn't stopped," he asked aloud, before going to bed and forgetting all questions he had about that night. James immediately began to remember the fantastical dream he was going back to, in which a fiery red head asked _him_ out and he said yes.


	16. Chapter 16

Weeks passed. Harry would sometimes go to sleep, then be wakened by horrific nightmares, or he would sleep through the night. He would often get up before 5am to go flying, clearing his mind. He slowly started to heal from the terrors he had gone through at number 4 Privet Drive. Quidditch tryouts were held, Harry got Seeker easily. Hermione, Ron and Ginny watched happily as Harry gained confidence.

They had succeeded in their goal of being top in every class, except in Potions, where Severus Snape was the reigning student. Their favourite class was DADA, not because they learned anything or even because of their teacher. Well, in a way because of the teacher. The quartet would keep mentioning Death Eaters in class, asking about 'the Duck Lord'. Harry said that first. It had been an honest mistake; he had heard Professor Brown talking. He thought that he had heard Brown say 'Duck Lord', but he had said Dark Lord. It was their new name for Voldemort. It never failed to cause the Gryffindors in the class to laugh. The Ravenclaws either giggled nervously or glanced furtively around the room. It was in DADA one day, on the first Wednesday of December, the last lesson of the day, that Harry decided to see what reaction Voldemort's name would get.

"Professor Brown, why aren't there any spells to find out who has the Dark Mark that Voldemort brands his sheep with?" Harry asked innocently. He noted with amusement the scared and apprehensive looks he spotted, from nearly everyone in the room. The funniest were James and Sirius's expressions. James was looking completely and utterly disgusted and slightly sick, but he was pale and glancing around as though he expected Voldemort to just appear in the room. Sirius was gagging but looking around just as James was. The only ones who didn't look terrified were Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny.

"Do not say You Know Who's name!" Brown hissed loudly, his right hand quickly brushing his left forearm.

"Why ever not? Do you expect him to pop into the room at the sound of his name? I bet you he won't. Watch. VOLDEMORT! Hey, VOLDEMORT! WE'RE WAITING! GET YOUR LAZY ASS INTO HOGWARTS _NOW_!" Harry hollered. He looked around with an exaggeratedly expectant look on his face. The he turned to Ron.

"I don't think he's coming, Harry. How disappointing. He's very misbehaved. Even you come when you're called, like the good little puppy that you are," Ron said, shoulders slumping as he sighed dramatically, patting Harry on the head. Harry fought the urge to tell Ron that he was a cat, not a dog.

"Well, how rude. I wanted to meet the man who has terrified the Wizarding World so much they fear his name," Harry huffed, putting his hands on his hips.

"You know what I want to do, Harry? Do you?" Ginny asked Harry brightly. Harry looked at her, smiling.

"Well no, Ginny, I don't. Why don't you enlighten me?" Harry focused all his attention on the girl next to him, absentmindedly thinking that he preferred her with red hair.

"I wanted to call him the Duck Lord to his face. See the look on his face when I do. It would be so amusing. I wonder what he actually looks like. There are stories that he used to be totally hot," Ginny giggled as Harry suddenly made a face.

"Snake face cute? You have got to be joking, Gin. That's just sick. Oh, Merlin. Great, now I'm going to have even worse nightmares. Thank you very much," Harry whined. He looked at Ginny and then shuddered, pretending to retch.

Looking around the room, Harry laughed at the changed expressions on the faces of his classmates. They ranged from awe to fear. Even James and Sirius were looking at them with insane amounts of respect. Harry felt obliged to explain.

"I have seen monsters far worse than a delusional, insane, sadistic, homicidal, megalomaniac with a God complex. I see no reason to fear him until he gives me reason to fear. After all, fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself. And in fearing Voldemort's name, we hand him his victory on a golden platter. He does not deserve our fear. Besides what I think is smartest to fear is fear itself. Fear harms us far more than a man with a stick and a few mindless minions ever could," Harry said, gradually getting redder as he realises people are looking at him with even more respect after his speech.

"I've heard Dumbledore say something like that before. The fear of a name thing. I must admit it makes sense," James said, smiling at Harry, a little sympathetically. He knew what Harry meant by monsters worse than Voldemort.

The bell rang before anyone else could comment on what Harry had said. But the looks that were cast Harry's way as students filed out of the classroom spoke volumes. Even Lily Evans smiled at him and sort of half bowed. Everyone seemed to have gained a new respect for Harry. Everyone that is, except for one.

Professor Brown was looking at Harry with pure hatred written on his face. Looking at him, Harry felt his scar twinge, something it hadn't done since his Fourth Year. His suspicions were now set in concrete, Brown was a Death Eater.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

As the four sat at the Gryffindor table to eat, they noticed that awed glances were being cast their way. Or rather, Harry's way. The story of what he had said and done in DADA earlier had spread through the school. A few of the Slytherins actually _smiled _at Harry. Harry could tell from that that they were the few who would make at least a token effort to either defy or more likely, ignore Voldemort.

"What do you know about Voldemort, Harry?" James asked calmly. Harry could tell that he was curious, extremely so. Dangerously so, for the time travelling quartet.

"I know he's a Half Blood. His father was a rich muggle. It's true that he is a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and he is a Parselmouth. He can use snakes to spy wherever he wants. He got an award for special services to the school. He was a Prefect and the Head Boy. An outstanding student. His real name is Tom Riddle. Look," Harry pulled out a piece of parchment and scribbled 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' onto it. Then he tapped the parchment with his wand. The letters rearranged themselves to read 'I am Lord Voldemort'.

"How did you know that, Harry? I don't think even Dumbledore knows," Remus said, almost in a whisper. Harry shrugged, trying to come up with a reason quickly.

"I'll tell you when we are in the dorm again. I don't want to say anything here. It's information that could change your opinions of me, but I ask you to keep an open mind," Harry looked seriously around the group, waiting until they had all nodded. Hermione glanced at Harry and Ginny, and smiling mischievously decided to change the subject.

"Crushes and girlfriends slash boyfriends. None of you boys have ever told us anything about who you like or date and I wanna know. So, Remus, you first," Hermione giggled and watched in amusement as Remus went a deep red and made a lame excuse about needing to finish his homework. Lame because they hadn't been given homework in either DADA or potions, and Remus had finished all his other homework at lunch. Harry outright laughed when Remus bolted away in the direction of the library.

"Looks like that discussion is out, Hermione. How about Quidditch? We need to win against Slytherin in the match this Saturday; it's a matter of pride. Their Seeker told me that he could beat me with a blindfold on when he passed me in the hall earlier. This means that I'm going to try and end the game early, no more than half an hour. The fastest the Slytherin has ever caught the snitch is twenty minutes and I'm aiming to cut that in half," Harry said, eating a piece of chicken as he listened to James answer.

"That would actually be a good idea. You're used to the broom you have now, that should mean that you can do better than in the last match. I really wish you were allowed to use that LightningBolt of yours. We'd be guaranteed a win," James sighed wistfully, remembering the few times he had seen Harry in action on his own broom. It was a pity McGonagall had confirmed James's suspicion that Harry would not be able to use his own broom in the games as it was unfair to other players. If it had been a broom available to other students – meaning it was on the market – it would have been fine but because of the fact that it was a 'prototype' and not likely to be put on the market any time soon, it was completely and irrevocably off limits.

"Maybe in an exhibition match against Ravenclaw or something you could use your broom, Harry. Or before and after, anyway. Hey! There should be an exhibition day organised! A couple of Quidditch matches, each House submitting a team of fliers to show off. No, people just submit as individuals or groups, no Houses involved. Ask the house elves to organise a feast to have outside. The entire day should be taken up, lunch and tea outside, snacks out all day. And not just fliers, are there any gymnasts at school? And I'm sure that some of the other students would love to show off their spellwork. The teachers could take part too. We would just need you and Lily, James, as Head Boy and Girl to help us, oh yeah, and the Seventh Year Prefects from every House. Yes, Sirius, even Slytherin. It could help foster inter-House friendships, as well as providing a safe way of dealing with the animosity between Houses. The planning could be done over the Christmas holidays, after all they are just days away, then we get two weeks with barely anyone in the castle, so some aspects of the whole thing could be kept as surprises. What do you guys think?" Ron was bouncing in his seat with enthusiasm.

"It could actually work. It would take immense amounts of work and dealing with Slytherin could be tricky, but if we get Dumbledore's permission I see no reason why it wouldn't be a possibility. I'll ask him now," James said and stood to walk over to the Staff tables. Dumbledore was there, speaking in an undertone to McGonagall.

"Yes, Mr Potter?" Dumbledore looked up with sparkling eyes as James approached him, face serious but with amusement there also.

"I have a proposal to make, but it needs to be made to the four Head of Houses, and you. We will also need all Prefects in attendance when this proposal is made. Could you please set up a meeting with for us? It is serious, and it does need unanimous agreement to work, so it would be helpful if you could do this for me," James said, deciding to ask at the meeting.

"Of course. Will anyone else be in attendance?" Dumbledore looked interested. James knew that the idea would probably be accepted but there was no harm in making a few people curious about it.

"Sirius, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Thank you, Headmaster. Please inform me when the meeting is? I'll get it to the other six," James smiled and bowed when Dumbledore nodded, before walking back to his table to give his group the news.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **Thank you everyone who reviewed! Especially Ranger Dragen, who went through and reviewed more than one chapter as he went! Also to everyone who has stayed with this story even though it has very irregular updates. So here is ch.17, a week and a half earlier than planned (thanks to Ranger's fabulous reviews)! If you see any mistakes, please tell me, and if anyone wants to beta this for me (starting from ch.1) please say so! I know there are mistakes, but I can't always pick up on them, as it is my writing.

Chapter Seventeen 

The meeting was on Friday, with the 23 Prefects, 4 Heads of house, Dumbledore, Lily, James, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Sirius all in one classroom that was spelled for secrecy. James was pacing, and held a sheaf of parchment in his hand. Harry had spent the last couple of days laughing at how strung out James was, working out everything that needed to be done before he asked the others who needed to be involved if they wanted the exhibition to go ahead.

James had informed Lily of what he was doing straight after dinner, being polite but not quite hiding the fact that he adored her the fact that he blushed every time that Lily said something nice to him kind of gave it away and had gotten her help with organising everything. Lily thought it was a great idea, even more when James stopped going on about the Quidditch aspect of it, and covered the other events, such as gymnastics, fireworks at night, presentations by the different groups, and races both on foot, brooms and horses.

Standing in front of the 35 people who would decide if the event went forward, James's hands were shaking and he was about to have a panic attack. Planning pranks was easy; they often only involved at most five, six people. But planning something with so many different facets would be hard work, more so because not only was it for the whole school, hundreds of people, but it had never been done before. If it was a success, it could become an annual event, if it didn't, the blame would be at his feet for even suggesting it.

The assembled teachers were looking impatient. It had been a half day of class, as students were leaving for the Christmas holidays. Everyone in the room had decided to stay, due to events that were happening outside of the school. Jobs needed to be done before they could have anything for tea. James was just standing there. Getting annoyed, Harry poked James hard in the back.

"What? Oh, yeah, the idea. Okay. We have an idea that involves the whole school, teachers included. We were talking about how it was disappointing that Harry couldn't use his broom, and we came up with the idea of an exhibition day," James said, then stopped when Slughorn raised his hand.

"Not every student is as obsessed with Quidditch as you might like to think, Mr Potter. Why would they all want to watch an entire day of Quidditch?" Slughorn smirked at the uncomfortable teen.

"Well, I was getting to that. We have taken into account that not everyone enjoys Quidditch like we do. Only one game of Quidditch would be played, and then there will be various fliers competing in teams or as individuals, in races and stunt flying. Of the entire day, only two things will be house orientated. One will be the Quidditch game, the other I will get to later. After the broom events, there will be races on foot and on horses that Hagrid has already agreed to provide for. Or, as part of the overall challenge, it could be a condition that you have to Transfigure your own horse.

"After the races, there will be shows by gymnasts, swimmers, presentations by muggleborns to educate us about the traditions and such that they grew up with, the same for those born into Wizarding families for the muggleborns. Harry brought up the point that ignorance could be part of the reason that the war is going on today. We don't understand muggles and therefore muggleborns and they don't understand us. Following the educational part of the day will be a break for lunch. This will be had outside, on an area that would have been set up for this purpose.

"After lunch, there will be a timeslot for teachers. Professor McGonagall, you might give a short lecture on being an Animagus. Professor Slughorn, you could maybe show the effects of some potions that we wouldn't normally learn about. Professor Flitwick, advanced, obscure or just plain stupid charms. Professor Sprout, you could show plants that are strange and stuff. This gives us an opportunity to see things we don't normally see, and to learn while being entertained.

"Following the presentation by the teachers, all who wish to take part, not just you four, there will be a splitting up of the school for a small presentation, held by the Prefects and others who the Prefects wish to have help them. Each small group will then have turns to educate the other Houses about their own House. Famous witches and wizards, the Founder, traditions of that House. This day is aimed at trying to reduce animosity within the school, and encourage friendships to go beyond the bounds of Houses.

"When the House presentations are done, there will be time for individuals or groups to show off their skills. Don't worry, no pranks," James laughed, seeing the looks on the teachers' faces. Harry smiled, relaxing and enjoying the being in the presence of his parents at a time when they were at peace and happy.

"What sort of skills will this include, Mr Potter?" Dumbledore asked, looking amused at the whole idea.

"Whatever area the group or individual thinks is their strongest, or a combination. It doesn't even have to be a Wizarding skill," James said, smiling.

"Could you perhaps give us an example of what other skills there may be?" McGonagall asked sternly, wishing to have clarification.

"Muggle skills. Muggle activities that many born into the Wizarding world aren't entirely familiar with," James said, now completely at his ease.

"James, me and my friends have been talking, and we would like to have a half hour slot to show off skills that we have. Would that be possible?" Hermione spoke up, ignoring the wide-eyed Harry behind her and the protesting Ron.

"That depends, what sort of skills?" James asked. Hermione smirked superiorly. Harry realised exactly what skills Hermione meant. She wanted to show the school their unique brand of fighting – a combination of Transfiguration, Charms and muggle karate. They had all studied hard. Granted, they weren't black belts, far from it, but they were still competent fighters. And because most had no way of knowing what they would do next, they had the advantage.

"We could give you a quick demonstration. And yes, Professor McGonagall, we are most definitely legal," Hermione's Malfoy-Smirk deepened at the looks that crossed the teachers faces.

"Wait, a minute, Hermione. Who will show them? You know I can't, I can't fit in here. And you shouldn't be changing in here either," Ron said worriedly. The teachers looked even more confused and apprehensive.

"Harry and Ginny, obviously. They are the best at our style, and they both have two forms. Plus they train together," Hermione said sensibly. Harry groaned and Ginny beamed, they hadn't had much of a chance to fight since they had gone back in the past.

"Well, can you just show us already? It can't be that surprising," James said, leaning forward and looking cocky.

"Harry, Ginny, off you go, remember, it's not to the death," Hermione said smugly. Harry shot her a long suffering look before motioning for everyone to move as far back as they could. When people had finished moving, there was a large circle cleared, sufficient for what the pair needed. Harry bowed to Ginny and she bowed back, the traditional start to any duel.

What happened next was nowhere near traditional, however. Ginny had turned into a large lioness and was lunging at Harry, teeth bared. Harry dodged but wasn't quite fast enough: Ginny left his right arm bleeding and she didn't miss a beat as she spun around to lunge again. Harry responded by Summoning a small rock, then transfiguring it into a lioness to match Ginny. While Ginny was busy with the other feline, Harry took the time to stretch a little. Once he felt that he could move a bit better, he Banished the lioness, changing her back into a rock as he did so. Ginny returned to human form, but as she did so, her hair flashed a vivid red. Harry winced, but decided they could pass it off and not yet having perfected their morphing it if came up.

Once Ginny had changed, before her teeth had even quite returned to normal, she lunged at Harry, trying to put him off balance. Harry responded by snapping out a foot to hit her stomach. Ginny was thrown back a couple of feet, and Harry had rushed at her before she could regain her balance. As she countered and blocked fast kicks and punches, she planned her next move. A chair became a large, poisonous snake, heading quickly towards Harry. He would have to choose between revealing his ability or spending the rest of the fight dodging two things, the snake and Ginny. That was what Ginny had figured, anyway.

But when had Harry ever done something unexpected, Ginny was forced to think when Harry jumped onto a table on the edge of the circle, where the others had not been able to press against, where Ginny had gotten the chair. Then he had used the same spell on the snake that Snape had used in his Second year before leaping lightly down and taking advantage of Ginny's shock, quickly changed into a large black panther, silent and menacing, leaping at the transfixed Gryffindor. This was neither of the forms that Harry had shown his friends ever before. The others were a lion and a snake, but not a panther.

Harry was growling softly in his throat, his warning for Ginny to yield. Ginny did so, placing her wand in Harry's jaws and allowing her body to go completely relaxed. Her defeat clear, Harry dropped her wand on Ginny's stomach and retreated, rapidly shooting upwards as he regained his form. Harry's hair stayed black longer than Ginny's had and he knew that the spectators had noticed, because they were staring at him with suspicion. Knowing he had to deal with it, Harry hung his head sheepishly and stared at the ground.

"I still can't change back to myself straight away. It takes a few seconds of concentration and then my hair always stays the colour of my fur. My Transfiguration teacher said I really need to work on it, and it's gotten better, but I'm not quite there yet," Harry explained, looking embarrassed.

"Of course you will have a slot of your own on the day, if it goes ahead!" Dumbledore announced jovially. Hermione smiled at him.

"James, we don't need to hear anymore. Could we vote now? It will be majority rules," Lily said, looking around the room. She handed out slips of parchment that Hermione had cast the Protean charm on, so that once the vote was written it showed immediately. Once everyone had voted, only a Hufflepuff Prefect had voted against the day. One Slytherin had however requested that it be over two or maybe even three days.

"Good idea. Maybe two days, over a weekend. The teachers could have all homework in by Friday and have none assigned over the weekend. First day of term Prefects can start posting sign up sheets around the school. Are all I agreement?" Dumbledore looked over everyone. When the majority nodded, Dumbledore released them. It would be a hard job for the organisers, very messy and they would need to keep the schedule flexible, but it could be done. At least, that was what James was thinking as he made his way to his rooms to clean and to make an early start on his holiday homework. He wouldn't have much free time, after all.


	18. Chapter 18

It was Christmas Eve. Every Gryffindor who had stayed at Hogwarts had finished their homework, and because the only Gryffindors who had stayed were involved in the planning of the weekend, planning was well under way as the group sat in the Common Room, brainstorming everything they could about their House.

"Overly competitive?" Harry suggested. He had mostly stayed out of the conversation, as had Ginny and Hermione Ron was still asleep because they were 'new' to Hogwarts and Gryffindor, and therefore should not know too much about the House.

"Yeah, that's true," James nodded sagely. Harry laughed, all morning James had been just acting… strange. He would be jumping over furniture one moment, lying down on the floor and staring at the ceiling with a dreamy look on his face the next. He would make strange observations, most of them about the colour red. Hermione had a knowing look on her face, as did Ginny but Harry was totally lost. Looking over to where James was writing a poem in the air with his wand _Red as the autumn leaves that fall, My flower holds me in her thrall, Love of my life, more beautiful each day, She is my only, and will stay that way_ and finally realised what had happened.

"Evans agreed to go out with you, didn't she Prongs?" James had given the time travellers permission to use his other name, after Harry had slipped up the day before. Harry was amused by the sheer sappiness that James began to emanate at the mere mention of 'Evans'.

"Of course she did, why else would dear Jamie be acting like a love struck _girl_?" Sirius asked, sounding disgusted. His eyes danced merrily though, so everyone in the room knew he was joking, though five of the six Prefects just didn't give a damn.

"I don't know. Why would he? I suppose he has been crushing on the poor girl for years now, he's entitled to be over the moon," Harry conceded, fighting not to laugh as James wrote 'Lily' over and over in the air, surrounding her name with a heart every time.

"Yes, but look at how he's acting! I don't think I've ever seen anyone react like that to having a girl go out with them. Scratch that, I've never seen anyone react like that. It's scary," Sirius shuddered and smiled at Harry. Harry snickered, watching James hum a fluffy love song in between making suggestions for their Gryffindor project. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were assigned finding out everything they could about Godric Gryffindor and his life before, during and possibly after Hogwarts.

"Come on, you two. It's okay for him to be happy that Lily agreed to go out with your little friend there. Now come on, we want to make a banner and we need help with the image of the lion. Change now, please," Ginny demanded, smiling at the blonde in front of her. Harry huffed and tugged at his hair. It was so annoying, it took ages to brush all the knots out of it, and tie up properly. He couldn't be stuffed this morning so it hung loose, longer by a couple of centimetres than it was when he had left his own time. It had thickened and curled slightly, framing his face. His eyes were an intense emerald, bright against the tan of his face.

"As you wish, my lady," Harry said, bowing elegantly to the girl in front of him. Ginny giggled and blushed gently, her eyes cast down demurely.

"Of course, my lord. If you will?" Ginny curtsied slightly, and Harry laughed outright, obliging Ginny with a smile, changing shape into a magnificent lion, its coat a golden hue, its eyes a deep orange. The mane was only a couple of shades darker than his coat, thick and full with slight black streaks. He was a large lion, bigger even than Ron, standing with his shoulders level with Hermione's chest.

"Brilliant," Sirius breathed, looking at Harry with admiration. James had snapped out of his love induced daze.

"First a panther, now a lion, anything else you can do, Harry?" James asked. Harry let loose a loud roar, clearly amused. Hermione jumped, the roar was not expected, by her at least. Ginny giggled again. Hermione was lecturing Harry.

"Don't you ever do that again! Do you know how much that frightened me? I get enough of that with Ron! At least apologise!" Hermione huffed, hands on her hips and a scowl set on her face.

Harry let out a vaguely apologetic sounding chuff, then, at Ginny's impatient _Harry!_ he stood so that she could see him. He stood stock still, not moving even when Ron fell down the stairs but he did occasionally let out unmistakable 'hurry up' sounds.

Ron was watching the drawing that Ginny was making of Harry. With each stroke of her pencil, more of Harry's form appeared on the sketchpad. And as it formed on the pad, a larger version appeared on the red material being used as the banner. Hermione was spelling the banner as Ginny drew, so that when Ginny had finally finished drawing, the lion was coloured a brilliant gold, with red glass beads as eyes. The lion was animated, prowling around the red background and, after Hermione had recorded a selection of Harry's roars, chuffs and growls, was generally very vocal. The word GRYFFINDOR was flashing, changing colour to stay legible as the lion moved, gold against the red background, red wherever the lion paced.

"Nicely done," Harry approved. He had changed back after Ginny had finished, and was now pacing in a manner similar to what the lion on the banner was.

"Thank you very much, Harry. Anything else you think we should add?" Hermione was glaring at the banner irritably. It was missing something, she just couldn't figure out what.

"Yeah, a border. It looks unfinished with it just like that. Here," Harry pulled out his wand as he spoke and then ran it around the outside of the banner. Thick gold braid appeared, heavy gold tassels at each corner. Harry tilted his head to look at the banner and then decided to add one more thing. With another tap of his wand, a lioness was pouncing in the lion. As the Gryffindors watched, a wrestling match lion style was being waged between the two big cats.

"That does look better, doesn't it? Very realistic," Ginny said smugly, as the lioness pinned the lion with a roar. The lion chuffed its defeat and the lioness began thoroughly cleaning the lions face, ignoring the obvious expression of distaste on the larger cats face.

"Of course," Harry said, bowing to Ginny. Ginny looked at him suspiciously. Ron, realising immediately what Harry was planning to do, stepped up to Harry so he could his menacingly into his ear.

"Stay away from my sister, Harry. Until she makes the first move, and you have gotten totally over your summer, please. If you hurt her, I will never forgive you and I don't want to ruin our friendship. I really don't," Ron stepped away from Harry, who was nodding in acceptance.

"Ron! You didn't!" Ginny wailed, recognising the look on Harry's face from all of the times Ron had lectured her boyfriends. She would not bear it if Harry decided that they were just friends and that was how they should stay…

She was jolted out of her thoughts when she noticed Harry nodding towards the door slightly. Enough that she could notice but not enough that anyone else would. Ginny smiled and left the room, wondering what Harry wanted to talk to her about.

"What is it?" Ginny asked as soon has Harry had followed her out of the portrait hole. Harry shook his head and smiled, walking away, towards where one entrance of the Chamber of Secrets was, an easier entrance than the girls' bathroom he had used in his Second year.

It was located in the dungeons, and Harry was sure not even Voldemort had figured out where it was. It was an unmarked piece of wall, distinguishable from the rest only by the fact that there was a slight crack, larger than the joins of the stones in the rest of the wall. Harry had been wanting to go through that particular passageway the entire time he had been in the past.

_Open for me, open_. Harry hissed at the wall while Ginny watched, She seemed curios as to what Harry was saying. An entire section of the wall pulled forward and to the side, revealing a winding staircase. The staircase went both down and up, and to Ginny's surprise, Harry went up.

When they reached the top of the stairs, they had entered a large room, spacious and decorated in red and silver. Ginny gaped. Snakes and lions decorated the walls. Dust carpeted the room, muffling the sounds of his footsteps. Ginny looked at Harry, wondering how he knew where the opening was.

"I was hiding from Malfoy one day and I noticed that the wall wasn't flush with the rest of the stone. It opened when I tapped it, I didn't even need the password. I didn't realise that the stairs went down, I just raced up. There was no dust in the room then, and when I used the past viewing spell that Remus taught me when I asked him to, it showed that only two people had been in the room in the past hundred years. Remus can go back further than that, did you know that? Anyway, it showed us, except I didn't realise it was us at the time, because we're disguised. I heard the phrase _open for me, open_ so I decided to try the next time I was down, because it wouldn't just push open. Do you like the décor? Sometimes the animals are fighting, sometimes they're not. Why did I take you here again?" Harry looked at Ginny, frowning slightly. In the middle of him babbling, he had forgotten exactly what he had taken Ginny to the room for.

"I don't know. Ron told you something and then you indicated for me to leave the Common Room. The banner looks good, by the way. What you added looks really good," Ginny said, wandering around and sneezing every few seconds. Harry looked over at her distractedly and waved his wand. The dust disappeared.

"Oh yeah. He told me I couldn't have a relationship with you until I deal with my myriad of issues, and you have to make the first move," Harry said absently. He was looking at a shelf. There were four books and an old piece of parchment on it. When waved his wand to clear the shelf of dust, his wand hit the bottom of the shelf. He had to leap back to avoid being hit in the head when the shelf pulled forward then down, creating stairs up to a gap more than wide enough for him and Ginny to fit through.

"What do you mean! I can have a relationship with whoever I want, emotional issues or not!" Ginny was raving, throwing her hands in the air.

"I agree with him, Gin. Come on, follow me," Harry cut her ranting off, then slid through the hole in the wall. Ginny followed, struck dumb by Harry's mild voice.

When they hit the ground, they looked around them, amazed at what they saw.


	19. Chapter 19

The room was square. Four stately throne-like chairs, one in each corner, were practically humming with latent power. One was silver with green cushions, another gold with red cushions; the third was white with blue cushions and the last black with yellow cushions. On each chair were a snake, a lion, a raven and a badger respectively. While at first glance the animals seemed real, they were in fact merely carved wood, coloured and preserved with strong residual magic. They weren't animated and the eyes were, strangely, missing.

Other items in the room were four ancient books, the parchment pages yellowed and the leather binding cracked. In emeralds on one it was proclaimed 'The Memoirs of Salazar Slytherin, Parselmouth and Founder of Hogwarts'. The second had dyed the leather red, with a gold inscription, modestly saying 'Property of Godric Gryffindor, Founder of Hogwarts, and Master Swordsman'. The third and fourth books had nearly identical inscriptions. The book with blue artwork on the front said 'Rowena Ravenclaw, Founder of Hogwarts' and the book with black artwork, barely legible against the dark brown leather, said 'Helga Hufflepuff, Founder of Hogwarts'.

In the very centre of the room was a table, covered in a plain cloth emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest. Set on the table were four pieces of parchment, yellowed as the books and looking as though the slightest touch would crumble them. Harry flipped one over.

_To the Student that has located our room,_

_I must congratulate you, and also ask if you bear my blood, for this letter is written in parselscript. As far as I know, I, Salazar Slytherin, am the only Parselmouth in the British Isles at this time. As you may have guessed, this is the Founders Chamber, where we retreated to after a hard day teaching imbeciles with heads filled with nought but fluff and empty space. We have each left our chairs, our animals, which gave us our inspiration for the school, our diaries recounting all we know, of magic, this school and our daily lives. _

_Also, we each left these letters to the children of the school, who follow in others footsteps and receive guidance from the staff of Hogwarts on their journey to being fully fledged little witches and wizards, as well the protection my castle can afford from maniacal muggles and occasionally muggleborns who share their view that magic is satanic. These letters mean to reassure the students and give them hope in a time of darkness. _

_You may be wondering why my letter is written in parselscript, that others cannot even read. Tomorrow, I am leaving what has been my beloved home for ever. Gryffindor has allowed in too many muggleborns, who spread discord and hatred among those who actually deserve to be schooled within the fine halls of this castle. I cannot stand to be around those with such tainted blood. I hope that you will understand and try to rid the school of such disgraceful animals, the unworthy ones of dirty blood. They endanger the future of our kind, and should be exterminated._

_I trust you with this duty, and if you should not accept the noblest task of carrying this out, you are no true heir of mine and have shown yourself to be weak and worthless._

_With sincere greetings and apologies for not being able to meet you in person,_

_Salazar Slytherin._

Harry looked at the letter in disgust. He was starting to rethink his opinion that Voldemort had not seen this room. The young Tom Riddle had probably come to see this letter and gone on what would be the beginning of years of hell for the muggle and Wizarding worlds. The blame could truly be laid at Salazar Slytherins feet. Harry looked across at Ginny, who was reading one of the other letters. She giggled every now and then, so Harry contented himself with watching her instead of interrupting.

"What?" Ginny asked eventually, looking over at Harry and blushing a deep red. Even though her hair was now brown, she still definitely blushed like a redhead, and had a redheads temper, Harry couldn't help musing.

"You looked like you were having fun, Gin. Care to share what was so amusing?" Harry asked, letting a laugh leak into his voice. Ginny sniffed and looked like she couldn't decide whether to pretend to be offended or giggle. She settled on giggling.

"Rowena Ravenclaw sounds just like Hermione. Right down to the story you and Ron told me about the levitating charm. She even wrote it, listen. _A common mistake I have noticed among first year students is the remarkable ability to pronounce the incantation for the levitation spell _Wingardium Leviosa _wrong_. _Just in case it is needed, it is pronounced wing-_gar­-_dium_ _levi-_o-_sa. The gar is long and the stress is on the middle syllables._ Isn't that just so funny!" Ginny broke down into giggles again. Harry coughed at the scary resemblance to how Hermione used to talk; every sentence out of her mouth had at one time been some strange piece of information, or instructing someone how to do something.

"Very Hermione like, Ginny. Perhaps we should give the letter to Hermione to read, you know. And the stories were right; Salazar Slytherin was a right bastard. He wrote his letter in parselscript, and then instructed the reader to rid the school of muggleborns. And because I won't do that, I'm weak and worthless. I'm going to burn it so that no one else can read it and get ideas in their heads. I think that Voldemort had found this chamber before us," Harry said, tearing the letter to shreds and _incendio_ing it.

"Well, that explains more than it doesn't, isn't that right Harry?" Ginny replies brightly, paling only marginally at the name of the man who had stolen her rose tinted glasses and replaced them with a distrusting and sceptical view of the world. She found it hard to trust anything if she wasn't sure what it was.

Harry nodded at Ginny and picked up the next letter. This one was from Godric Gryffindor.

_Dear Student._

_I hate writing, so excuse any mistakes in this letter. I am Godric Gryffindor, Founder of the Gryffindor House. Doubtless the version of me that you have heard about is perfect, flawless. A brilliant, brave man who set no foot wrong. Someone who always knows what they want to do. Stories of that kind have already started to go around in my own time; I cannot imagine how they would go in yours. I'm going to tell you the true story._

_When I was young, I found out I was a wizard. Yes, that's right, I am a Muggleborn. I never let Sal find out; he would have killed me by now. His prejudices have just gotten worse over the years. Anyway, I am Muggleborn. My parents were devout Christians, and believed that I had signed some sort of pact with the devil. The wizard who told me and my parents what I was didn't even bother to stay behind to teach me, he just left me with a wand to muddle things out myself. Mother and father got it into their heads that they could beat the magic and evil out of me, from the time I was about 5 till I was seventeen and left home, I never had fewer than seven bruises at once. I also had no self esteem at all._

_After I turned seventeen I began to wander. I was very badly educated; I could neither read nor write and I only knew basic spells, gleaned off witches and wizards when they passed through my village, which was rare. I was quickly 'adopted' by a fellow traveller, also a wizard, but an accomplished swordsman at the same time. He began teaching me, and after four years, he said I had learned everything I could from him, and we parted ways._

_You must understand, whoever is reading this, that I still had little confidence, and the only time someone could come close to me without me flinching away was when I was fencing. Oh, I could hide it extremely well, my friends still think I was born to lower class, magical parents, but it left a mark. It is because of this I value bravery, partly. The ability to deal with whatever life gives you and move on. Not unchanged, but ever changing._

_It was about the time when I was 23 that I first met Sal. He helped me to reach my full potential, but he could still defeat me easily in both magical duelling and fencing. I could multi task better than him though, so I always won when we combined the two. He introduced me to Helga and Rowena. Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. By the time I was 24 we were all close friends Rowena and Sal closer than Helga and me. We made sure to steer clear of them at nights. The next year, on my 25th birthday, we were given the wooden statues, and they became our symbols. They also sparked off Rowena's idea of creating a school. Sal had the castle and the money, Rowena had the contacts, we all had the drive. _

_The story goes like this: We had just been given the statues, and were talking. Rowena asked us what we would do if we could do anything in the world. Sal said that he would provide a place for orphaned magical children. Helga just wanted to help people. I wanted to stop any magical children being treated like I was. After I said that Rowena had a fit of giggles. She's normally sensible, for a woman, but I suppose all females must act strange at some time. When asked what was wrong, she said we should open a school. Sal said he had a castle we could use, and Rowena began drafting letters to the people she wanted to teach, a system to find out who we were going to admit and all that._

_A year later the school was up and running with our first batch of students. There's one brat, Malfoy, who Rowena turned into a ferret on his first day. He toes the line now. Another, a Potter, tried to hex one of the girls into oblivion. Both of them have been sorted into Slytherin. I have several Weasley's in my House; it is great fun teaching them. Do any of the students from this time have descendants in your time? If they do, say hello to them for me yes, even Malfoy and Potter. No matter how annoying they are, they both have great potential. _

_Well, that is my story. Share this letter only with those who have had a hard life, for them to have inspiration to carry on. You will find them mostly in Slytherin or Gryffindor._

_Sincerely yours,_

_Godric Gryffindor_

Harry stared in shock at the letter. For someone who claimed to hate writing letters, Gryffindor had better penmanship than most people Harry knew, and the letter was extremely long. Ginny was reading Helga Hufflepuff's letter with a look of confusion on her face.

"Hufflepuff was insane, Harry. What's your impression on Gryffindor?" Ginny looked up at Harry, putting down her letter. She looked confused when Harry looked up at her.

"Gryffindor was abused and had less self esteem and confidence than I do. How is that possible? And a Malfoy and a Potter were students at the school the first year it opened. My ancestor was a Slytherin. This castle was Slytherin's. Fuck," Harry breathed and promptly collapsed.


	20. Chapter 20

When Harry woke up, Ginny was leaning over him with a worried look on her face. He was still in the Founders Room, lying on his back on the floor.

"Shit," he said eloquently when he tried to sit up but instead smacked his head on the table. Ginny giggled slightly.

"You have to be kidding me, Harry. There can't have been anything really upsetting in that letter. You are such an idiot sometimes. Come on, get up. We have to get back to the others, tell them about this room. I'm guessing you couldn't find it before, in our time, am I correct?" Ginny was smiling as she helped Harry slide out from under the table and stand up.

"I told you what was in the letter. Maybe that's the reason I could pull Gryffindor's sword out of the hat?" Harry tilted his head to the side like he did whenever he was thinking.

"No, you could get the sword because you are a true Gryffindor. You figured out the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets when it really mattered, you risked your life to save someone you barely knew, you stayed even after the basilisk was set on you, you destroyed Diary-Riddle even after being poisoned by a centuries old basilisk, and then still had the strength to get us out of there. You could summon Fawkes and the Sorting Hat because you showed such strong loyalty to both Dumbledore and the school, even when being faced by one of the most evil wizards of our Age, at the age of _twelve_ Harry, _twelve_. That is why you could get the sword, you are the most incredible guy anyone could ever hope of knowing, you such remember that, always remember that," Ginny was shaking Harry as she spoke. Harry just shrugged and led the way out of the room, blushing in a way he could only have gotten from his mother.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"Took you long enough! Come on, we have food!" Sirius yelled as the pair came back through the portrait hole. Harry pulled a face; he still couldn't finish a plate, let alone come even close to what Sirius and James seemed to think he should eat. And even that was still less than half of what the two ate usually.

"Good for you. Do you want a cream?" Ginny accio'd a container to her; in the container were innocuous seeming custard creams. James and Sirius nodded eagerly, taking one each. As soon as they had swallowed their first bite, they squawked and disappeared, humans sized canaries in their place. Soon the canaries were restored to their true nature of teenage wizards with a pop and a shower of yellow feathers.

"Brilliant!" James exclaimed, eating the rest of his cream, changing to a canary and back with every bite. Sirius was doing the same thing, trying to figure out whether it was a charm or a potion that activated the change. While watching the two boys tested out the limits of the transformation, everyone forgot to ask Harry and Ginny where they had gone.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Christmas day everyone was laughing as they watched each other open presents. Dumbledore from the Trio's time had somehow managed to manipulate the spell to send back presents to the four teenagers stuck in the past. As well as the traditional Weasley sweater, mince pies and fudge, they also got clothes especially Harry, two books each from Remus, a chess set for Ron, a practice Snitch for Harry, a book on the intricacies of Time Travel for Hermione and a gorgeous phoenix necklace for Ginny from Sirius and various little odds and ends from various people in the Order.

Sirius had also gotten Harry something else – a new, more customised LightningBolt, altered off the one already made to fit Harry, the adjustments including better turning and speed, at the cost of a little of the stability of the original LightningBolt, meaning that only an experienced flyer could use it. The original LightningBolt was now being put on the market as an international standard broom with the patent going to Remus and Sirius for the design. Harry couldn't wait to try it out neither could Ron and Ginny but Hermione was looking pissed as she read the note Sirius had sent with the broom.

Sirius and James were looking at the broom with obvious envy, drooling over the workmanship and wondering how much it would cost to get a broom like that of their own. Harry noticed them watching closely, and decided to explain it to them.

"My godfather decided that my LightningBolt wasn't good enough anymore, so he hired people to make it even more suited to me. Later we can all go out and try it, but since it's my broom I get to ride it first," Harry smiled as Sirius and James both grinned and him before going back to their own presents.

"We've opened all our presents, so what are we going to do now? And Ron, you can't eat all those sweets now, you'll be sick," Hermione scolded Ron, while Harry rolled his eyes. Dumbledore and the twins, as well as Remus and Sirius had bought them large packs of sweets. They had also bought each other sweets, meaning that all three had more sugar than they knew what to do with.

"We're going to try and annoy the Marauders?" Ron guessed. He had had fun giving the Marauders trick sweets at random moments. The other boys still hadn't learned, they ate whatever Ron gave them then looked extremely surprised when something happened to them. It never failed to make Harry laugh and Ginny giggle uncontrollably. It was either that or they were extremely good actors. Harry preferred that they were acting, Ginny were adamant they were so used to pranking others that they couldn't comprehend that they could be pranked themselves.

"No, Ron, we're not going to prank the Marauders again. First, we're going to see what Ginny got, yes Ron, I know she got sweets from most of us, then we're going to research –," She stopped when Harry and Ron let out loud groans and immediately began whining.

"'Mione, can't we do anything else?" Harry begged, eyes going wide. Hermione sighed and then gave up. She had wanted to find out as much as she could about Gryffindor, but it seemed that she wouldn't get anything done with the two boys with her.

"Fine, let's see if we can find any more secret passageways," Hermione sighed, looking as put-upon as she could, even though her eyes sparkled with amusement and happiness at seeing Harry let out a yell in joy. Even if Harry had done a good job of suppressing nightmares and pretending to be over his uncle, he rarely smiled, and even less often laughed and right now he was doing both, without any restraint at all.

"Where shall we start, dearest Lady Truth?" Harry asked, smiling as Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation at the nickname for her. Both Ron and Harry called her that incessantly since they had found out a couple of weeks ago that her name meant Truth.

"We shall start, Harry, by looking where we found that slide the other day, you know, the one with the snake etching?" Hermione looked at Harry and Ron, hoping they realised where she was talking about. Harry did, but it took Harry whispering in his ear for Ron to understand what she was talking about. Then Harry looked downcast.

"Hermione, we can't," he said gloomily, glaring at the floor. Hermione narrowed her eyes, wondering what Harry was talking about.

"Oh yeah, the giant bloody snake," Ron said, mimicking Harry's downcast, disappointed expression.

"Right. How could I forget about the snake?" Hermione smacked herself on the head, annoyed at the fact she had forgotten about the giant, man-eating, deadly basilisk that currently resided in the Chamber of Secrets in the time they were currently in.

"You weren't the one that was down in the Chamber with it, 'Mione, so of course you wouldn't remember it, even if you were petrified by it," Ron said, perfectly reasonably. Hermione still hit him on the head though, for daring to point out that she was wrong. Maybe not technically, but close enough. She conveniently forgot that Harry was the one who had remembered the basilisk to begin with and the fact that had they entered the Chamber they would most likely have died.

"Hermione, was that really necessary? Anyway, I want to wait until I have Sirius and Remus and Professor Dumbledore with me before I go into that particular area of Salazar's hidden pieces of the castle. It's the Chamber of Secrets, not the Chamber of a Secret. And did you know the castle was originally Salazar's? So he would have security spells and stuff everywhere. We're not trained enough to counter them. We can still look in other places, though. Like in the library. That way Hermione could research while we look for hidden passages there. The Marauders never looked there, I remember Remus telling me they never thought to look there," Harry suggested. Hermione brightened immediately.

"That is a really good idea, Harry. Come on, what are we waiting for?" Hermione was bouncing; nothing made her happier than the prospect of learning something new, unless it was… No, nothing could make her happier than learning.

"For you to get out so that we can get changed," Harry drawled. Remus, Sirius and James had long since left. Hermione blushed and sprinted out of the room so her friends could get changed.

When Harry and Ron came out, dressed in the new clothes from Remus, Hermione had changed as well, into a short black skirt and a long sleeved white top with _'You're _not_ paranoid, they really _are _after you…' _on the front and '_I should know, I sent them'_ on the back. Harry liked it, but he seriously thought it would suit Voldemort better.

"We going now?" Hermione asked calmly. Harry and Ron nodded. They followed Hermione out of the common room, Ron staring avidly at the girl in front of him, staring avidly at where her top clung tightly to her body.


	21. Chapter 21

The four time travellers reached the library in record time, having run all the way there. Hermione was drooling with anticipation. Already they had information to show the school, and Harry could find even more. Harry, watching her, was tempted to try to pull Gryffindor's sword out of the Hat, just to keep her smiling.

"Hurry up, you three!" Hermione yelled, completely ignoring the fact that they were just feet away from the library. She immediately quietened when Madam Pince, the librarian even in this time, hissed at her to be quiet.

"Me and Ginny will look for the next hidden room, you and Ron can research," Harry suggested quickly. He wanted to be alone with Ginny. He was beginning to realise that he didn't view Ginny as Ron's little sister, or even as just a friend anymore.

"Why do I have to study?" Ron protested in a shouted whisper. Harry smirked.

"Oh, you can help us, Ron. But there are going to be spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. Think you can deal with that?" Harry asked, eyes widening innocently. Ron pulled a face and shuddered, following Hermione to a table obediently. Harry and Ginny laughed as they walked to the back of the library, just before the restricted section.

"So what are we doing exactly, Harry?" Ginny asked, frowning at a shelf that was in front of where Harry had stopped. To Ginny, it looked like Harry was staring at a shelf of muggle fairytale books.

"Ingenious. What pureblood fanatic would look at muggle fairytales? Only one who knew what would be behind them," Harry whispered. Ginny looked at him, confused. What one Earth was Harry talking about?

"Harry, are you feeling quite alright?" Ginny asked Harry, who was running his hand all along the books on the one shelf.

"No, that's obvious. What is it, this shelf? There's something here. It can't be another passage, even if it was a way into the Chamber of Secrets. So what could be here? I can't seem to pin it down…" Harry started muttering to himself, until Ginny smacked him over the head. "Ginny!" Harry yelled, jumping and putting a shaking hand to his heart. Ginny ducked her head, smiling apologetically at both the librarian and Harry.

"Sorry Harry, but you were being insane. There is nothing interesting about that shelf. Come on; let's look by the places where no one goes. Like near that corner that is just ignored, it's like there is an invisible 'don't come here' sign," Ginny suggested. Harry looked at her and nodded, reluctantly over to the corner she spoke of, frequently back at the shelf and frowning thoughtfully.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Hermione and Ron were sitting at a desk, looking through old history books, one in particular. It had that dusty, musty smell of ancient paper. The writing was very old script, but it was a description by a Gryffindor about Gryffindor, in his last days at the school.

_My Lord Gryffindor is very unlike himself at this time. Since the Traitor left the school, he has been despairing. The Lady Ravenclaw tries everything she can to cheer him, but the Lord Gryffindor resists all attempts to bring a smile to his face. Even his wife Freda can do nothing, nor can my Lord's two sons, Aldrich and Gareth. Still the Founder goes to his classes to teach; still he speaks as our leader of this school. Yet even the new students wonder about his health. He has not been to the stables in far too long, and his sword has left his side. I fear that we shall lose the Lord Gryffindor soon; he has lost his will to live._

Ron and Hermione finished the account, blinking at the student's relatively informal approach. Possibly because it was a journal of sorts, but also it was the most realistic description of Gryffindor that they had come across. In others, Godric was a mythical being, with strange and wonderful powers and great presence. There was no doubt in Hermione's mind that Godric had been a brilliant and powerful wizard but there was no way that he could summon demons. Hermione doubted demons in the literal sense actually existed. Perhaps the fact that her House's Founder had had great, almost unnatural charisma explained it. In that way, she couldn't help musing. Harry resembled Godric greatly. When he put his mind to it, Harry could convince almost anyone to do anything.

"Hermione? I think we need to make this a part of our project. Show the school that Godric Gryffindor wasn't perfect. Hey, do you think that one witch's idea that Gryffindor was muggleborn is true? Wouldn't that be great for all muggleborns?" Ron asked eagerly. Hermione didn't agree.

"No, it wouldn't. Then Godric wouldn't have been nearly as forward thinking as we like to think he is. A muggleborn accepting muggleborns isn't nearly as impressive as a pureblood accepting muggleborns," Hermione said plainly. Ron slumped.

"That's right. And he was good friends with Slytherin before the slimy git left Hogwarts. So logically, he can't have been muggleborn," Ron said dejectedly. Hermione laughed and gave Ron a big hug.

"You're so cute, Ron. Now, will you keep researching for me?" Hermione asked, pouting. Ron took one look at her and nodded eagerly; grabbing the next book on the pile and opening it, ignoring the dubious stain covering most of the pages, and began to read. Hermione smiled smugly and grabbed a book as well, treating much gentler than Ron had treated his.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"Harry, I think I found something!" Ginny exclaimed as she inspected what seemed to be a keyhole in the wall. Harry wandered over to her. It had been two hours and they had not moved from the corner, brushing away dust and searching every square millimetre of wall and shelf for anything that could open a secret passage. Harry was tired and hungry. Ginny, on the other hand, showed no sign of tiring.

"And the key?" Harry asked wearily, wiping away sweat, leaving a smear across his forehead in the process. Ginny looked at him impatiently.

"That's where Hermione comes in, isn't it? She'll know a spell that will open it," Ginny snapped, before running off to get Hermione. Harry fought the urge to growl as he was left by himself in a dusty corner of the library, with nothing to do. Fortunately, it was only seconds later that Hermione came running up, followed by Ginny.

"This should be easy," Hermione said, getting out her wand and casting a few simple spells on the wall around the keyhole. Then she giggled.

"What is so funny, dearest sister?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Oh, just I think we found Ravenclaw's room," Hermione remarked flippantly. Harry raised a brow and Ginny bounced excitedly. Ron wandered over, looking at Hermione with love struck eyes.

"Oh really? And why do you think that?" Harry tapped his foot. For once, he thought he could actually eat as much as Ron, if not more. Just goes to show, miracles do happen.

"Because of this," Hermione said smugly. "_Wingardium Leviosa!_" She 'swish and flick'ed her wand. With a strange rattling sound, then the click of a lock opening, and the entire wall slid forward. All four time travellers stepped forward into the passageway that appeared. It was thick with dust. On the wall to the left of them, there was an inscription.

_First year spells are ever easy_

_As you should now know_

_Continue on if you must_

_You'll be tested as you go._

Hermione looked at the inscription then smacked her head. "Of course! The test we have to pass is intelligence! For the Room of Requirement, there is no test because Hufflepuff wanted to help everyone. For Slytherin, the test was being a Parselmouth. We have to find Gryffindor's room, then we'll be tested there as well. This is going to be fun!" Hermione skipped ahead of the others.

"She's bloody insane, she is. Come on, Harry, we'll fall behind!" Ron sprinted after Hermione after making his little comment. Harry rolled his eyes and beckoned to Ginny to hurry up before following his two friends. Ginny sprinted after him, resisting the urge to scream at them to wait.

When she finally caught up with the others, they were staring with confusion at a small square block. On it was engraved a riddle.

_Calcium carbonate that's on the ground_

_Perhaps one day will be a column compound._

Hermione was looking like she was near tears. "Since levitating the key, we've used at least one spell from each subject in our first year, and three potions. Now a riddle uses muggle chemistry! I didn't do chemistry!" Hermione was wailing. Harry looked like he was suppressing a smile; Ron looked distressed at seeing his crush so upset. Ginny merely bent over and panted, trying to get her breath back after her unexpected run.

"Try – stal–ag–mite," she panted, remembering the riddle from the muggle book her father had bought her. Hermione looked at her, then burst out crying.

"Why didn't I think of that? I'm the muggleborn here! I should have known it!" she screamed, stamping her foot in an uncharacteristic show of temper.

"Hey! I went to a muggle school as well, Hermione. I didn't know it either!" Harry protested. Hermione looked at him and sniffed.

"Yes, but you're Harry. Like we've always said, Ron's the strategy, you're the power and I'm the intelligence. You wouldn't know," Hermione said snobbily. Harry narrowed his ayes.

"Are you saying I'm stupid, Hermione? Do you think I cannot equal your intelligence? Might I ask you, have you seen my grades in class recently? Because I know for sure they equal yours at least," Harry hissed, then sat and crossed his arms. As Ginny and Ron watched the two start to throw insults back and forth, many of which they had never heard, no one saw the stone drop into the floor, revealing a set of stone stairs. After two minutes, the stone came back up again, closing the staircase. It was the loud bang as the stone settled into place that frightened the two 'siblings' out of their fight.

"Oh no! Now look what you've done, Harry!" Hermione screamed, glaring at Harry. Harry matched glare for glare, and his was much scarier than Hermione's.

"What I've done? What _I've_ done? And what, Hermione, might that be?" Harry said quietly. Too quietly, seeing as the two had been screaming at each other mere moments before.

Before Hermione could answer, Ron decided to step in, wondering if this was how Harry felt around him and Hermione sometimes, out of place and awkward. "Come on, you two, we have to get back. It's time for tea. We've already missed lunch," Ron said nervously. Hermione and Harry promptly began ignoring each other, stalking back out of the passage, heading straight for the Great Hall for Christmas lunch, not even pausing when they cast cleaning spells on themselves.


	22. Chapter 22

The four were at the entrance to the Great Hall, before Ginny stopped suddenly. The other three looked back at her, impatience written on their faces. Hermione's expression was extremely hostile.

"I just thought I should remind you that we are still disgustingly dirty," Ginny said quietly, suddenly feeling as she had a few years ago, the tag along little sister, tolerated only because her brother was one of the Golden Trio. Awkwardly, eyes downcast and filling with tears and Hermione sneered scornfully, Ginny cast a cleaning charm on herself and hurried into the Hall, wiping her eyes as she went.

Looking at each other slightly uncomfortably, the remaining three cast cleaning charms as well, walking into the Hall, ignoring everyone else but their small group. For the first time since they had arrived in 1977, the four time travellers were not sitting together.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Once they had finished eating, the Golden Trio left the Hall, once more without Ginny. Ron felt guilty about the fact that he was happy with this, having missed it just being the three of them. Hermione was savagely glad and not in the least ashamed of it, as she was still sore about Ginny getting an answer she couldn't. Harry was upset about his fight with Hermione, having taken it far too seriously, and also feeling guilty about his growing attraction to Ron's little sister.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Harry asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had formed. Ron and Hermione glanced at him. They had planned to spend the rest of the day with the Marauders, but they had pissed them off by completely ignoring them, even Remus, as they ate.

"I dunno," Ron said, wondering if they could go do something that they had always used to do. But they couldn't. They couldn't visit Hagrid, they couldn't go play Quidditch. Where as in their time the Common Room would be vacated for the Golden Trio, here the Marauders had that privilege. There was no homework set and the idea of visiting the library again was out of the question, not with Harry and Hermione still considerably unsettled. There was no big secret they wanted to uncover, as there had been almost constantly since their first year at Hogwarts.

For the first time, it was hitting the Golden Trio hard that this was not their time. This was not their place, and they would never really belong there. They had been sheltered from this realisation by the considerable similarities between this time and their own.

The teachers were mostly the same. Flitwick, McGonagall, the new DADA teacher didn't really matter. Binns for History of Magic. Madam Pomphrey in the Hospital Wing and teaching Healing. Snape in Potions, with the same acidic remarks as in their time. The Gryffindors were still loud and bright and slightly obnoxious and arrogant. The parents of their class mates had enough similarities in looks that at times the Trio could convince themselves that they were in their time, especially when they sat in the Common Room, fire going, students talking in the background, the ruckus that came of some creative students creating pranks, in their own charmed both literally and figuratively speaking space as they talked in quiet voices, Hermione on the seat, Ron sitting on the arm, Harry with his head on Hermione's knee and Ginny sitting somewhere nearby. There was still Quidditch for Harry, even though Ron felt slightly left out, it didn't bother him too much as Quidditch had always been mostly Harry's thing.

Finally thinking of something that might cheer Harry and Ron up, trying to set aside her own slightly vindictive mood and concentrate on something else. "Why don't we go into the Forbidden Forest, see what's changed in there?" Hermione suggested, watching for her friends reactions.

"YES!" Harry yelled, bolting outside, Ron following closely. Hermione smiled slightly at the success at her idea. She ran to catch up with her friends, spirits rising as she felt like something would go right that day, apart from the discovery of the Rowena's room… Or the passage to it at least.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"I'm telling you, they're very… strange," Peter Pettigrew squeaked, as he was seen with the Marauders for the first time nearly all year. He had immediately taken a dislike to the newcomers, especially after what they had done in Transfiguration that lesson.

"We know they're strange. Probably because Harry has been through a lot and are trying to protect him, and he hasn't been to a public school before so he's going to be finding that hard, Wormtail," Sirius said, a small note of scorn coming into his voice. Peter never had been his favourite friend.

"You know, Sirius, I think Peter's right," Remus said hesitantly. He still had the tendency to slip into their normal names when they were discussing things that were serious. "And the fact that they know about me," he added, remembering the last full moon. For the entire three days when the full moon was worst, when they had been even nicer to him than usual, and made sure to be out of the dorm on the actual full moon so that they wouldn't be a reason for Sirius and Peter to have to stay behind and leave him with just Prongs as company. But why did they recognise him so quickly for what he was?

"I know they know about you, Moony. But they haven't said anything, and they aren't treating you any different. What worries me more is that all four of them knew their way around Hogwarts too well for newcomers. They tried to hide it, but they definitely knew what they were doing. And I refuse to believe that they all have good memories, Sirius. Harry knew exactly how to get outside after going out only once. And they know more secret passages than we do. We have been here for six and a bit years now and we took all of that time to find what we know now. And there is no way that they discovered that room so quickly by accident. Come on, pacing that exact amount of times in that exact space? But I don't think they're any threat," James put in, stretching out luxuriously, looking like more of a cat than the stag he was.

"Definitely not a threat. Harry has definitely not had a good life. He's not faking, I know that much. What I want to know is why are they here, now? Perhaps it has something to do with You-Know-Who? He is getting more and more of a threat every day. They could be trying to escape him or something. Maybe Harry was captured and tortured, and needed somewhere safe to go?" Sirius suggested. James tilted his head. Remus shook his head.

"No. If they were hiding, they wouldn't attract attention to themselves as they have. Remember in Defence? They were showing off, almost daring You-Know-Who, even if they didn't do it directly. It is bound to get back to him, and they must have known that," Remus pointed out.

"I agree with Remus. Let's put what we have together, shall we? Knows school really well, and seem to know a lot about the history of the school. They knew more about Gryffindor than we do before they even started this project. Harry has a way advanced broom," James stopped, then added one more thing. "And he has been seriously hurt before he came here."

"I agree with that. I think we should find out why they are here, where they're from, and also, why they seemed to find it funny when I was so surprised that they were related to you," Remus said, nodding slightly. Peter was scowling. He hadn't been trying to start a full out investigation of the four; he had wanted his friends to stop liking them so much. Now they liked them and were interested in knowing more about them.

"What school did they say they went to? That could be where we start," Sirius suggested. James frowned suddenly, trying to think.

"Well, Harry was home schooled because his parents wanted him and Hermione split up. The other s went to… the others went to… actually; I don't think they've said. Some private school," Remus said, beating James to it.

"They know Harry too well for what their story is. When Harry got up, remember the day of the first DADA lesson? Ron knew what he did when he woke up, I asked him. It was sort of like they had lived together. And Ginny asked if we got a show. How did she know? And if Hermione grew up with Harry, she would have known more about Harry than she seems to. What if they're entire story is just that, a story? It would be easy to dye their hair, put coloured contacts in. They might not even be related!" James exclaimed, thinking as he spoke. His eyes glowed at the idea of another research project.

Putting their heads together, the Marauders began to piece together a plan to find out the real truth behind the new students.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Yay! I finally finished the chapter! I am extremely sorry for the long wait, and unfortunately, the next one may take even longer. I have really bad writers block, I know that's an excuse but that's the only reason I can give you (well, that and computer trouble, but I've fixed that now). Also, this chapter is quite short… I really hope no one decides to hate me over this.

And, the damn site was acting up! This chapter was actually ready a week ago, but it couldn't be helped.

Anyway, thank you to all who reviewed and on with the… er, show!

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Did you know how long it's been since we have done this? Just the three of us, off doing something we shouldn't, something possibly life threatening? Actually, speaking of that, do you all have your wands?" Hermione was nervous, she couldn't help but babble. Normally she would start talking about something to do with knowledge, but there really wasn't anything she could say at that moment that she hadn't said at least a hundred times before. And even Ron learned something after that many repetitions.

"Hermione. Stop worrying, of course we have our wands," Harry chided gently, verdant eyes sparkling with ill suppressed excitement. They were walking along the slightly damp grounds to the Forbidden Forest. They could see the dark line showing the boundary of the forest, foreboding but strangely inviting, especially to the Golden Trio.

"Yeah, 'Mione, this'll be brilliant. It's been rather boring in this time… No offense Harry, but with you being so hurt, we haven't had that much time to do the things we've usually done before. Even this is tame compared to what we have accomplished over the years. You know, the troll, the obstacles to the stone, the Chamber of Secrets – although that was mostly you Harry. Sirius – Peter. Our friendship survived Fourth Year. Yes, Hermione, I know that was my fault!" He almost yelled at Hermione, seeing she was ready to interrupt him. "Hell, through all of it, we've survived, we've done things Aurors couldn't do! Now I'm getting bored!" Ron winced at the sound of a whine entering his voice. "And no one here can play chess properly. At least in our time we had people play with us properly," Ron finished, scowling.

"Oh yes, the lack of chess partners is such a horrid thing to happen. Never mind the real reason why we're here!" Hermione suddenly spat out. Harry and Ron looked at her in surprise.

"Hermione, is something wrong? You've been acting really strangely lately," Harry asked hesitantly. Hermione suddenly burst into tears.

"I hate this, I can't do this, I can't keep lying. And they know, I'm sure they know, this is going to blow up in our faces!" Hermione said shakily. She was hysterical. Harry looked at her nervously, backing away slowly. Ron glared at him, expecting him to do something, but Harry didn't know what to do.

"Hermione, it's okay, honestly it is," Ron said awkwardly, putting his arms around his friend. Harry watched, shifting from foot to foot as Hermione slowly calmed down. When Hermione had finally stopped shaking, Harry spoke up.

"I think we should go back. This doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore," Harry said. Ron nodded, and Hermione didn't say anything.

They walked silently back to the castle. Ron had his arm around Hermione, Harry was e few paces back and to the side. As they walked along, Harry couldn't help but think that the Golden Trio was falling apart, tarnishing, being changed into something not quite so pure, not quite so innocent. And it was all his fault.

When they got inside, Hermione and Ron went in one direction and Harry went in another. Hermione and Ron headed back to the Common Room, but Harry went to the Chamber. He knew the basilisk was still there, but he needed a break, he needed to sort things out. The whole lying thing wasn't just affecting Hermione, it was affecting him too. He knew that the people in this time weren't 'his' people. Yet, it was still hard to remember that when Sirius or Remus suddenly said something that reminded him so much of the Remus and Sirius that he had left behind.

Without realizing it, Harry had reached the entrance to the Chamber. Still deep in thought, Harry hissed the password and slid down the pipe. It was slimy and disgusting, and when he hit the bottom, the rat skeletons still crunched underneath his feet. There were significantly less than last time he was down though.

Walking through the tunnels, Harry didn't realize that he was headed to exactly the same place where he had destroyed Tom Riddle, and saved Ginny. Thinking of Ginny, Harry realized he wished that he were back in his time, and in a good enough state of mind to date her without burdening her. He loved the way she would tease him… the way she spoke, the way she walked, the way she chewed on her hair when she was thinking, and the face she pulled when she realized what she was doing and pulled strands of hair out of her mouth.

Finally, Harry reached his destination, sat down, put his head in his hands, and completely retreated into his own world.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"Hermione, Ron, so good to see you," James said as he climbed in the portrait hole, looking just slightly suspicious.

"James! Good to see you too. I hope you don't mind about earlier, we were just being a little stupid. We'd had a fight. Especially Hermione and Harry. Sibling rivalry, you know," Ron said, amazed at the way the lie just seemed to slip off his tongue. Hermione looked at him in shock, before quickly hiding her expression. James however had caught the look.

"Hermione, you look quite shocked! Whatever for?" James asked, slightly sarcastically. Hermione looked at him, mind working quickly to come up with an excuse.

"Er, well, you see, we don't normally say when we've fought, it's actually something we don't do very often, and when we do, it's strictly our business," Hermione said quickly. While it was true that they did not fight very often, she knew very well that if the Golden Trio fought the entire school knew about it very quickly, usually only minutes after the fight.

"That makes sense," James allowed. He was so sure there was something that he was missing! Something very important that could explain everything! "So, we were wondering, where did you go to school again? I can't remember what you said," James said, settling down. Hermione and Ron traded glances.

"Probably because we didn't. James, do you mind? This really isn't a good time," Hermione said repressively. It was the wrong thing to say. James was immediately curious and slightly worried. He realized Harry wasn't with his friends.

"Hey, where's Harry? You really shouldn't leave him alone? I wouldn't dare leave Sirius alone, and he's recovering so much better than Harry has been!" James exclaimed. Hermione latched on to the topic that she knew was guaranteed to get James to stop talking to them.

"So, What exactly happened to Sirius anyway? You've never said," Hermione said casually. When James paled and turned his head away, Hermione smirked triumphantly. She really loved it when she got one over on people. "Besides, Harry isn't Sirius. We know he won't so anything too stupid. He won't endanger his life for no reason. Now please, this isn't a good time," Hermione finished, turning back to Ron.

James stood up and left to find his friends again. Now he knew that the group was hiding something.

And he would do his very best to find out what the hell it was. It was time to put Peter to use. As the Marauders had found out, rats made _very_ good spies.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: **Next chapter! Thank you to Moonstone-Mystyk for beta-ing this for me!

"Right, Wormtail, you know what to do?" James asked his friend. Peter blinked his watery blue eyes and nodded. James nodded back leaving the room as Peter transformed into a large brown rat and scuttled to hide beneath Harry's bed.

"I am not happy about having to do this," James confided to Remus, when they met up in the Head Boys room ten minutes later. Sirius was there as well.

"James, you did it, now leave it already!" Sirius snapped. He had been feeling increasingly itchy as time went on, and he gradually moved on from his family's horrendous treatment of him. He was getting bored.

"Yes, but what if they have a perfectly reasonable reason for having secrets? As one of us said, they could be hiding from You-Know-Who! We could be putting their lives in danger!" James said anxiously. Sirius looked like he was going to say something bitchy to his friend but was stopped by Remus as sound started to come through the mirror had taken with him.

"_Harry, don't just disappear like that!" _That had to be Hermione. Her voice was slightly shrill, though she didn't seem to be too panicked or anything.

"_Hermione, I'm fine. I just had to think things through, okay? And it's not like I was going to be hurt. The basilisk in the Chamber is asleep in this time, and I won't wake it up. I'm more careful than that," _Harry spoke, voice sounding slightly muffled. The three listening in wished that they had visuals, but that would be too much of a risk. No one is very comfortable seeing a rat in their sleeping space.

"_Harry, did you hear that?" _Hermione asked suddenly. The eavesdroppers froze.

"_I remember that sound! But why… Under the bed! Get it!" _The Marauders heard a bit of a scuffle then a sudden shout of _"get that rat! And what the hell is it carrying?" _from Harry before everything went quiet.

They sat in tense silence, waiting for Peter to come back. After a long half hour, Peter came scurrying through the door, panting as he dropped down.

"I lost them at the tapestry of Taliesin. I don't think they realized who I was," he gasped out between pants. The other three looked relieved, though James also looked extremely guilty.

"We shouldn't have left you to do that by yourself, Wormtail. I'm sorry," the Head Boy apologized, and didn't look slightly happier when Peter waved it off.

"Prongs get over your conscience kick. No one was hurt and we found out that they know at least some of the future, and somewhere in the castle there is a chamber with a sleeping basilisk," Remus growled. The full moon was coming up, and as with Sirius he was getting itchy.

The werewolf's companions looked at Remus with mouths hanging slightly open. "This coming from the person who sometimes defends Snape," James said lightly, though there was a hidden warning in his voice. Remus looked at him before smiling sardonically and inclining his head. Peter looked between the two, nervous at the possibility of conflict as ever.

"Look you two, stop it. I get how you figured the basilisk information Moony, but from the future?" Sirius asked, trying to divert the fight that he could sense coming up. Real fights were rare for their group and he didn't want to do anything of that sort now, not when they all needed to work together to figure out what was happening.

"Harry said 'asleep in this time', did he not?" Remus asked, sarcasm slipping into his voice. Blinking in shock at the normally mild prefects behavior, the others nodded. James and Sirius filed it away to find out why their friend was being so uptight.

"Oh. Well, that makes sense, Moony. Good on picking that one up," Peter said nervously, before deciding to leave. "Look, I have to go. I'll talk to you later, yeah?" With that, the rat animagus stood up and left, moving quickly and not giving his friends a chance to say goodbye.

James looked at the two left facing him and cleared his throat. "So, who gets to confront our dear time travelers?"

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Before the Marauders could get to the four time travelers though, Lily Evans blocked their way.

"Potter, you suggested the damn thing, so when is the first organizational meeting going to be?" she snapped, one hand on her hip, green eyes flashing in annoyance.

"What?" James asked, non-plussed.

"This House day… weekend… event!" Lily snapped.

"Oh, well, Lily Flower, I just had that planned. Next prefect meeting we're going to announce that the first meeting, needing all prefects, Heads of House and the Headmaster will be held on January 2nd, when everyone is back, so the first announcement can be made Monday night to all students, and sign up sheets can be planned for the week after that. I'm not as unorganized as you think, my Lovely Lily, am I?" James smiled at the object of his affection.

"Good." Lily flung her hair over her shoulder. "And don't forget we have that date on the 26th. If you mess this up I am _not_ giving you a second chance. Pick me up from the Head Girls rooms at ten sharp. If you're late, I'll take that to mean you don't want to date me any more." With that, Lily spun on her heel and left. James stared after her, a dreamy look on his face.

"Isn't she gorgeous? And so fiery. She is definitely not a pushover," James continued to gush about his lovely lady all the way back to his rooms, having completely forgotten about his plan to confront Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"Did you see the rat run?" Ron was laughing. Hermione tried to look stern as she formulated and answer but could _not _fight the urge to giggle.

"I think the only other time I've ever seen that run is when Crookshanks was after him!" Harry agreed. Hermione gave in to her giggles completely, drowning out whatever else her two friends were going to say on the matter.

They were talking, of course, about the heroic dash of Peter Pettigrew away from them after they had realised that he was hiding under Ron's bed, where they were talking. They had chased him as far as a tapestry Harry had always enjoyed seeing, one of Taliesin continuously changing from hare to human as he ran from an angry witch. (A/N I am not entirely sure if this is right – feel free to correct me!)

Then they had stopped and laughed all the way back to the dorm, where they now sat, laughing over the event, having completely forgotten the awkwardness of a few hours earlier.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

**A/N: **Sorry about the short chapter. Next time, however, will be Tiger and the Deer: Lily and James' Date!


	25. Chapter 25

"You're on time," Lily said to James, sounding disappointed. Her hair had been pulled back in a ponytail instead of left down like it normally was. She was wearing a long modest green skirt with a tight, white, long sleeved top. Over her arm she had a green jumper.

James looked at her, trying to hide his hurt. He was dressed in black jeans and a red long sleeved top with a stag on one shoulder. He had a black denim jacket over top. He had even tried to get his hair to lie flat. "Sorry you are so unhappy at going out with me," he said, attempting to make it sound like he was joking.

"Never mind. So, where are we going first? Zonko's?" Lily asked, stepping out of her room and shutting the door behind her. She ignored it when James tried to offer her his arm.

"Actually, I was wondering if there was anywhere you would like to go? I don't think Zonko's is really your sort of style, not after the way you react to the pranks we pull," James said reasonably.

Lily looked at James in surprise, but smiled as they walked through the stone pathways of the school. She stayed silent until they were nearly at Hogsmeade fifteen minutes later though. "Could we go to Scrivenshaft's? I have to get some more parchment and I wanted to get a couple of books," Lily said finally.

"Sure! And I was thinking that maybe, sort of, I could get you a book or something, as a Christmas present, seeing as I didn't buy you one, and then I could buy you some chocolate or something at Honeyduke's. You know, 'cause this is a date, and everything," James knew he was rambling, but he couldn't help it. The long silence had unnerved him.

Lily actually giggled. She had never seen James Potter, Gryffindor's star Quidditch player as anything other than overconfident before. It was maybe enough to make her think about giving him a chance. _If _he behaved well enough for the rest of the date. "Sure, James. I would love a book and some chocolate thank you," she managed to get out finally.

James let out a long sigh of relief, then grinned. "Well, why are we just standing here then?" They had stopped walking when Lily had her giggle fit, and now they started walking again, heading straight for the bookstore.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

After spending nearly an hour and a half in the store, Lily finally got her parchment, a beautiful white quill (courtesy of James), three research books on Charms, and one on old Irish and Gaelic magic practices as the book that James was buying her for Christmas. James had chosen it, the very first one he had picked up, and gave it to her. She had been amazed that he had remembered that she was interested in alternate forms of magic.

As Lily flipped through the pages, she came across one page headed **_Protection of Love and Hope_**. A spell that would give the person it was cast on nearly complete protection (based on the magic level of the one being protected) from any sort of magic attack and even some physical attacks from anyone who wished them harm, the only condition being that it would cost the caster their life.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

After they had finished at Scrivenshaft's, they two went to Honeyduke's. Lily, having enjoyed James's company in the bookstore was curious to see just how much James had listened to her when she spoke of her favourite chocolates. She sent him off to buy her chocolates while she looked at the other sweets.

After ten minutes, James came back with an armful of chocolate – most of it dark chocolate, with a small selection of mint and fruit cream filled milk chocolate. Also from the small selection of muggle chocolate, James had grabbed a kg block of Cadbury's Dairy Milk. Lily smiled. He had been listening, and obviously he had been slightly more stalkerish than she had thought – she hadn't mentioned her weakness for Cadbury chocolate to him before.

Lily had meanwhile chosen a selection of hard-boiled mint lollies and some marshmallows. While wizarding confectionary was interesting, it would never be able to beat the muggle sugary treats she had grown up with.

"Congratulations, James, for actually listening to me," Lily said, smiling as she added her lollies to James's already laden arms, knowing he would buy them for her without complaining. Sure enough, he did, pausing only to grab some sugar quills and Honeyduke's finest for himself.

"Are you having fun so far?" James asked as he carried every bag they had accumulated (two for Scrivenshaft's and four for Honeyduke's), refusing to let Lily take any.

"Yes. Who knew, James Potter could actually be tolerable!" Lily laughed sweetly. She was actually having fun. And now, she figured she should go to Zonko's. She knew James wanted to go there really badly.

James looked at Lily, suddenly serious. "Was I really that bad? I mean, I know that towards Snape I was, and still am, cruel and vindictive, but to everyone else…" James trailed off, turning his gaze away from Lily towards a random sparrow that was pecking at the snow. Shifting, he remembered that he had a piece of bread in his pocket that he had forgotten to take out, and put down the bags so he could tear it up and feed it to the bird.

"James, when you want to see someone's true character, you don't look at how they treat their friends, or anyone they like. You look at how they treat the people they label their enemies. One minute of watching someone interact with a person they dislike or hate will tell you more about that person that ten years of watching them with their friends. And you're better this year, you've finally grown up." Lily looked at James, then at the bird that was busily pecking at the bread James had thrown down, then back at James, moving to put a hand on his arm. When he looked at her, she smiled softly. "Now, we were having so much fun. Let's go back to that, shall we? I want to see what enthrals you so much in Zonko's. Come on," Lily laughed at James's expression of complete surprise, and dragged him off.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

"I don't get it," Lily said, staring at a pot of ink on the shelf, her head tipped to one side. "What's so funny about disappearing ink?"

James laughed, smiling mischievously. "Well, depends on if you use it in conjunction with anything else or not," he said. "On its own, you lend it to a Ravenclaw, or replace theirs without them knowing, and then when they do their homework, halfway through it just disappears. Then, after about five minutes it fades slowly back in again. Use on the right sort of people, and they get frustrated but not too upset, and their expression is hilarious. Or, use the slower acting stuff on your homework, and when you hand it in, make sure your teacher sees the handwriting on it. Then, when they go to mark, they know it should be there, but its not, and they search for your work, thinking they lost it. It's not funny, but it means they stop in their marking, or get frustrated and just mark the rest quickly, not bothering with it much. That's what we do for Peter, when he forgets to do his homework. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

"And see this? It's charmed so that the person holding it can only say the truth. That's good for when you know someone's lying to you, or just finding out who someone's crush is. That bottle there is for playing that muggle game, where you spin the bottle and kiss the person it lands on. It's charmed so that it always lands on a specific type of person. You can set it to only people you see as friends, or who you have a crush on, or people you don't like, or so that it always lands on guys, or always on girls.

"Over there, that's all potions and stuff for changing skin colour, causing people to do random things like burst out signing or always talk in limericks, and stuff like that. Then they have guides for beginners." James stopped and turned to look at Lily. "A lot more thought goes into our pranks than you think. We have to plan it, find all the spells and stuff we need, then set it up and execute it. It's practice for strategy, research, practical skills and it's a good stress reliever. Everyone is at least slightly sadistic, did you know? Not even the bets person in the world can say they've never felt amused by someone else's misfortune," James said, pulling Lily after him as he wandered around the shop, pointing out different items.

"But James, some of the things you've pulled haven't been funny, just cruel. Like you're always humiliating Snape, why?" Lily knew that she was ruining the mood, but she couldn't help it.

To her surprise, James actually answered her. "It's just a feeling I get about him, you know? Like he's, well, tainted or something. I would have actually left him alone, but in our first year he went after Sirius, calling him Mudblood-lover, blood traitor and that sort of thing. It's just grown form there. Not even Remus likes him very much," James said. "So I do my best to make his life hell, partly because I just don't like him, partly because it amuses Sirius, and partly because I can largely get away with it," he risked a glance at Lily. "I am trying to stop it. Besides, I have better things to so this year."

Lily didn't look as horrified as James thought she would. Rather, she looked thoughtful. "Well, at least you know why you do it. That makes it a lot easier for you to stop. And James, if you don't stop, it will just get bigger," Lily said seriously.

"Get bigger?" James queried.

"Yes. You start off small, just bullying – and yes, it is bullying – one person, then that person's friends, then anyone you see with them, and it just spreads. It's like studies have shown that serial killers and abusive people often start with animals, then move on to people, they slowly get desensitized to what they're doing. You talk about Snape as if he isn't even human sometimes. It's scary," Lily explained.

"Well, when you put it that way," James shrugged and frowned slightly, then visibly shook himself. "Fine, I'll stop being so mean to him. Doesn't mean I'll tolerate him any more than I have to though," he said, flashing a smile and apparently leaving the entire conversation behind him. "Shall we return to Hogwarts, my lady?" James asked, shifting bags out of the way so that he could offer his arm to Lily.

"We shall, good sir," Lily said, accepting James's arm. The two of them left Zonko's and walked back to Hogwarts in silence, James enjoying Lily's presence, while Lily was deep in thought, thinking that perhaps James wasn't such a bad person after all.

**A/N:** Finished! And now I have to reread my own story, because it's been so long, and I'm having such trouble with writer's block that I've forgotten it!

Again, thank you Moon-Mystyk for beta-ing this for me! It's greatly appreciated!

And also, does anyone have any story recommendations? I can't seem to find ay good ones that I haven't read before.

And a quick recommendation – An Aunt's Love by Emma Lipardi (I think…) is a brilliant story. Nine stars out of ten from me

Cya next time, whoever is reading this!


	26. Chapter 26

"So… How did it go? Come on, give us all the gossip!" Sirius pounced on James as soon as he got back to his room, more enthusiastic than he had been all year.

"Damn, Sirius! Just give me a bit of time to myself for a bit, would you? You can be worse than a girl sometimes!" James exclaimed, laughing and smiling at his friend.

Sirius pouted, but sat on James's bed and was quiet for a grand total of five minutes before the silence got too much for him. "Well? Your first date with the lovely Lily, how was it? What did you do? How did she act? Is there going to be a second date, or is that it? Overall, did it go well?" Sirius pelted his friends with questions.

James had to wait to answer, as he was laughing too hard from Sirius' excitement. "I'll answer your questions in order, shall I? First, it was brilliant. It wasn't always fun, she got serious a couple of times, especially about our pranking Snivellus, except she called it bullying, and has convinced me – well, that's too strong, she has encouraged me to stop it and leave him alone. A small price to pay for Lily to start liking me, I think. Second, we just wandered around Hogsmeade, I bought her chocolate and a book, then I showed her Zonko's," James paused at the look of surprise on Sirius's face. "In fact, she was the one who suggested it," he smirked, then continued. "She was nice. Still the same fiery Lily I know and love-,"

"And stalk," Sirius interjected, laughing at James's expression.

"I suppose that's true," James admitted. "Anyway, she was just being herself, just a bit more, well soft would be the closest I could get in describing it. I'm not sure whether there will be a second date, I just dropped her off outside her room and came back here after saying I had a good time and that it was nice to be able to have a civil and enjoyable time with her. I'll ask later, when she's had a chance to see that I'm serious about following her advice about toning the whole prank thing down, though I've already done that. This time, though, it's because of her not because of necessity. I think, overall, it went bloody brilliantly!" James finished, and with a love struck look on his face, he flopped down onto his bed, staring at the ceiling.

Sirius watched him with a small smile on his face, though he looked kind if wistful. "Nothing going to be the same ever again, will it? We're not going to be the Marauders anymore," Sirius said, turning his gaze away from his friend.

Apparently, something in his voice alarmed James, because he sat bolt upright, worry scrawled over his face. "Sirius, we'll still be the Marauders. We'll just be acting our age. We'll still be friends, all four of us. No, it won't be the same; it'll be different from before. We'll be leaving Hogwarts after this, out into the real world. There's a war going on, and there is no way we'll be able to stay the same, it's impossible. But us, the four of us, we'll stay friends and nothing will come between us. Me, you, Peter and Remus, no matter what happens, we'll stick together, and we'll be there to help each other. And we'll see each other at least once a month, when we're all helping Moony.

"So yes, it will change, but it will be in a good way, it will," James finished, leaning over and giving Sirius a quick hug before moving back and blushing slightly.

"But there'll be big changes. There'll be Lily, you'll marry her and have lots of kids, and Peter will find someone as well, and I'll just be the same, and Moony will find it harder out there because of his condition. You and Peter will live happily ever after, and I will too, and even Moony will be happy, but we won't be the Marauders. We'll drift apart until we aren't so close anymore, until we don't know each other well enough to finish each others sentences, till we start missing full moons, till we're strangers who happen to see each other more often than normal. We'll all have our own lives, and we won't ever have this, ever again," Sirius said miserably, all signs of excitement gone. He felt guilty about ruining James's mood, but he had been dwelling on this more than anything else since the start of the school year. He felt that he would be abandoned.

"Sirius, we would never leave you behind," James said, seeing what Sirius was really getting at. "We will stay friends, we will finish each others sentences until we turn 150, and we'll annoy our respective partners with it. Our kids will be the best of friends, just like we are and will _continue_ to be, and they'll get us mixed up when they're just babies. You'll be my first kid's godfather, and I'll do the same for you. It'll be Uncle Padfoot and Uncle Moony and Uncle Wormtail. You're my brother, Sirius, and you always will be. Always," James finished, nodding and watching his friend closely.

A smile spread over Sirius's face and he looked at James mischievously. "So you're planning on marrying Evans, are you? Lily Potter. Hey, it actually has a ring to it! And your first son can be Sirius James Potter, and your second son can be Remus Peter Potter, and your daughter will be something like Jasmine Lily Potter. You'll even have a dog and a white picket fence," Sirius said, a gleam in his eye.

"That's disturbing, Padfoot. You came up with that much too quickly. Besides, why would we need a dog? We have you," James said, then smiled wickedly. "And Moony too, of course. He is a canine," he added.

"Okay, okay, no dog. You'll have a cat instead. Just whatever you do, don't get your kid a toad when he goes to Hogwarts? Get him an owl, so he can send us a whole lot of letters," Sirius conceded.

"Us? You're sounding pretty possessive, aren't you? He's my son," James laughed.

"Too bad. He'll be my son by the end of it!" Sirius shot back.

James mock glared at his friend, arm reaching to grab his pillow. "Is that right?" he asked, then hit Sirius as hard as he could.

"You asked for it, Prongs! And yes – he – will!" Sirius said, snatching a pillow himself and emphasising each of his words with a hit on James's head.

Soon a full-blown pillow fight had erupted, Moony and Wormtail even joining in when they came to see how James's date went.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

In the Seventh Year boys dorm, a boy sat on his bed, watching the scene through a the mirror that had slipped off Peter's back as he ran from the Golden Trio, a sad, wistful smile on his face and his eyes filled with tears. If only things had turned out that way.

Though he would have hated that name. Come on, who wants to be named after a star?

**A/N** Chapter 26 written and finished! Sorry all, this chapter has been written since before ch25 came out, just getting around to posting. And I am so sorry, everyone, because although I have ch27 written and ch28 partially done, there will not be an update for quite some time. By this, I mean anywhere up to and beyond six months. I am too busy to do any writing, and because it is completely done on the computer, I can't work on it unless I'm at home. And reading fanfics will always be my priority. Again, sorry.


	27. Chapter 27

**Important A/N:** Another update. And after this, this story will go into hibernation for anywhere between two months and a year. Unfortunately, there is an annoying, irritating, exasperating, irksome, infuriating, frustrating, maddening, bothersome and other such synonyms called real life. Oh, how I wish there wasn't! However, I quite like this chapter, even if it did take me three months to write.

_2 weeks into the 2__nd__ Term, Wednesday_

"You know, we should really have that meeting for the weekend thing that we keep putting off," James said announced calmly at the third meeting of the term. "Why was the last meeting cancelled?"

"The attack on the family of Amelia Lamoure, one of the Ravenclaw prefects," Remus supplied.

"Ah, right. Now, before we get onto the other issues, does anyone object to holding a meeting next week, same time, same place? It would mean having two meetings in two days, but I feel that we need to get the planning started now, so that entry lists can be put out within two months," James said calmly.

"I don't have any problems with that, does anyone else?" Lily looked around the room and when no one did, she nodded and smiled. "Good, I'll inform Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron as to the meeting time and place. Right, on with the rest of the meeting then…"

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

As Lily walked out of Ancient runes after her class, she looked around for Ron, Hermione and Harry. She knew that they had Transfiguration when she had Runes, and their class wasn't far from hers. Soon enough, she found them. "Hey! Ron, Hermione, Harry! Over here!" she called, and hurried to catch up with them when they turned around.

"You want to tell us something, Lily?" Harry asked calmly. He had taken leaps in bounds in his recovery, as his friends had seen when he was able to hear loud noises, or even have one of his friends mock hit him, without shying away or having a panic attack.

"Yeah. I just wanted to let you know that the meeting for the exhibition weekend, the one that was postponed has been set for Wednesday next week, at 7.30pm, in the Prefect's meeting room. I'll get James to fetch you anyway, show you how to get there. You've all managed extremely well, getting around Hogwarts, I still get lost sometimes," Lily admitted with a rueful smile.

"Want to know our secret?" Harry said, leaning in close and looking shiftily around.

Lily leaned forward as well. "Yes, of course!" she whispered as loudly as she could.

"Magic," Harry whispered, before moving back. "Come on guys, what do we have next?" he asked, turning towards his friends.

"Study, Harry," Hermione supplied, adjusting her bag.

"Well then, this is a demonstration for the fair lady. Point me Common Room," Harry said, holding his wand flat on his palm. His wand spun, before it pointed to the lift, tilted up slightly. "And there you go, magic," Harry grinned, before walking off, his friends following.

Lily laughed and walked off as well, not even realising that the Hogwarts grounds were so magic saturated that at least within the castle itself, the spell should not have worked.

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

Saturday 

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were all sitting on Harry's bed in the Seventh Year boys' dorm, having a long overdue conversation. Harry had been spending more and more time in the Chamber of Secrets and especially the Founders Room that he had shown Ginny. He felt drawn there for some reason. Unfortunately, this meant that he was spending less and less time with his friends, so they felt neglected, leading to them calling a meeting.

"I'm beginning to feel like you don't like me anymore," Ginny said, pouting.

Harry laughed. "Not like you anymore? Who said I liked you to begin with?" he said, grinning and tilting his head to the side.

"Well, Mr Potter, everyone likes me! You may be the exception to a lot of rules in the magical world, but this is not one of them," Ginny said flirtatiously, flipping her hair over her shoulder and looking coyly up at Harry through her lashes.

"If you start fluttering, I'm getting the hell away from you, Ginny dearest," Harry said mock-fearfully.

"Oh fine, ruin all my fun," Ginny said with an exaggerated sigh. "I'll just have to go flirt with Sirius."

"I dare you to, Ginny. Using that awful pick up line you told me once," Hermione said, grinning.

"Okay then. It'd be fun," Ginny agreed instantly, leaning back and sighing. "You have to admit, Sirius Black has to be one of the hottest guys to ever walk this earth."

"I'm tempted to agree with you, just to see how you react," Ron said, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Don't you dare, Ron! If you do, I'll tell him you said that!" Hermione snapped, eyes blazing.

"Ooh, touchy, any reason why?" Harry said, leaning forward like a girl getting ready to hear some juicy gossip.

"NO!" Hermione yelled, going a bright red.

"Sure, sure. I believe you," Harry drawled, grinning.

"You sound like your father, Harry," Ginny said, changing the entire mood of the conversation.

"Yeah, it must be weird for you to see you dad as a teenager," Ron added, looking at Harry seriously.

"It is, but it isn't if you know what I mean. We haven't been spending much time with them, really, so it hasn't affected me much. It's fun, watching him and Sirius interact, and I've gotten to see what my parents were really like. Did you know that my dad's taking my mother on another date? He asked her last night, in front of half of Gryffindor in the Common Room, after you guys went to the library to do homework. She looked him up and down then said 'yes' in this really bored tone. It was weird," Harry said, eyes sparkling and looking eerily reminiscent of Dumbledore.

"Did you know that we've been here for three months already?" Hermione said suddenly. "Three months and nothing strange has happened, apart from the fact that our Defence teacher is a Death Eater," she finished.

"That's not strange, Hermione. What's strange is that said teacher hasn't tried anything on Harry yet. In fact, he hasn't done anything except be slightly less prejudiced than Snape in how he deals with the Houses. I would even go as far as saying he's the third best teacher we've ever had, after Professors Lupin and Fake Moody," Ron said, looking absolutely astonished. "But you are right, it's weird. We haven't had even the start of an adventure yet. I find myself getting rather bored."

"I don't!" Harry said vehemently. "I am loving this! No stares or anything, after they all got over my Voldemort speech. If it wasn't for the fact that it's the middle of Voldemort's First Rise, I would want to stay here forever!"

"I agree with Harry. But you can't forget about the war, not as easily as we could in our time. I mean, ever morning there's at least one black letter informing a student that a relative has died. It's really sad," Ginny said, and everyone went quiet.

"It's hard keeping up our cover story in the midst of all this," Ginny stated. "So much is going on, you just want to run downstairs, and shout out to everyone what's going to happen to them, or that everything's going to turn out fine, you know?"

"Yeah, everyone's worried that their parents, friends and siblings are going to be the next to disappear or die," Hermione added.

"I'm glad we never had that happen with us," Harry said softly, and everyone nodded.

After a minutes silence, Ron clapped his hands. "Enough of this! Harry, what do you think of being in a dorm with the Marauders?"

"Oh, it's just wonderful. Being drenched in cold water if I sleep in for even a minute, Remus and his PMS, having to sleep in the same room as Pettigrew, Sirius thinking that his infantile jokes are funny, it's just wonderful!" Harry exclaimed sarcastically.

"PMS?" Ginny asked hesitantly.

"Pre and Post Moon Syndrome," Ron answered smartly.

"Makes sense," Hermione added.

"Seamus and Dean aren't going to believe us when we get back, are they?" Harry suddenly asked.

"Why not?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Well, here we are, in the middle of the First Rise, talking about euphemisms for the facts that one of our professors is lycanthropic, an ex-convict has the most immature sense of humour ever, and sleeping in the same place as a one time presumed dead murderer," Ron said, then looked at Harry. "Am I right?"

"Perfectly so. I hardly believe it," Harry answered.

"Did you two realise, this is our seventh year together as friends, and it is the first where we haven't been in some sort of trouble together? It seems so long ago that you two saved me from that troll," Hermione said reminiscently.

"The philosophers stone," Ron added.

"Remember Second Year? Even Petrified, Hermione managed to be right," Harry snorted.

"Hey! So says the guy who blew everyone away by producing a corporeal Patronus at age 13! And Ron, stop laughing, you're the chess prodigy!" Hermione said indignantly. "All three of us has our way over-the-top characteristics, so you can't tease me about mine!"

"We can too, Hermione. I mean, come on. _We could have been killed – or worse, expelled!_" Ron mimicked horribly. "Or something like that, anyway," he amended.

"Oh, shut up, Ronald. I don't know why I bother with you!" Hermione huffed.

"Come on, Hermione. Where would we be without you?" Harry said in a placating tone of voice.

"Dead, or worse," Ron said seriously.

"Oh, you two!" Hermione exclaimed, pulling both of her closest friends into a hug.

"Oh, excuse me? And what am I, slime from Snape's hair?" Ginny interjected, startling the other three. They pulled away from each other, blushing.

"Anyway," Hermione laughed, eyes shining suspiciously bright. "Let's change the topic, shall we?"

HPGWJPLESBRLRWHG

In the Head Boys room 

"That was… enlightening," Remus said slowly.

"I still think we shouldn't have put that listening charm on Harry's curtains," James said uncomfortably.

"Oh, that's just because Harry's probably your son. I bet that they don't even look like that," Sirius said scornfully.

"We should go to Dumbledore, what if they're here working for You-Know-Who?" Peter said timidly.

"Let's do that then," James said, nodding his head and walking away, his three friends following close behind.


	28. AN Sorry

Unfortunately, due to my workload with university and work, I no longer have the time to write (or even read that much, really). Therefore, I am putting this story up for adoption if anyone wants it. If you do, just leave a review (signed in) saying so.

I apologise for this, and thank everyone who (even after more than a year) still has my story on alerts and such.

Lady Halaia


	29. STORY HAS BEEN ADOPTED

Sorry, another A/N!

Just a note saying that **redheaddeliquent has adopted this story! It may be a few days or a week before there is an update, but it will happen!**

**The link to her profile is: /u/1567875/ (add in the www. at the beginning).**

**Thank you all for your patience.**

**~LadyHalaia.**


End file.
